Am I that body? Seccion femenina de la FET and the struggle for the institution of physical education and competitive sports for women in Franco's Spain.

  "One must fight against preexisting mentalities based on backward and
  all too theoretical ideas and mistaken concepts. We must also fight
  against the attitude of women, who found themselves isolated and
  inactive ... and that of the ibero-celtic man" (1)

  "The activity of physical education instructors and professors in the
  discussed period played a decisive role in eradicating the taboos
  imposed on women who wished to participate in sporting
  activities." (2)

The Feminine Section of the Spanish Falange (Seccion Femenina de la FET-SF), founded in June 1934, was for almost four decades the official women's organization of Franco's Spain, reaching at its height a total of 680,000 members. Yet despite its impressive size and diverse activities, the organization received little attention from historians. A number of new works have been published recently, which attempt to redress the balance. This was done mostly through an in-depth examination of the experiences of a small number of SF members at a local level, and the relations of those members with the larger women population in their provinces. (3) Yet an analysis looking at the formulation and implementation of policy at a macro level is still missing. When issues of policy were addressed at such a level in the past, this was done for the most part through an examination of legislation and formal rhetoric. (4) The current paper will look at one such aspect of national policy, namely, the promotion of physical education and competitive sport for women. This will be done by combining the aforementioned sources with an analysis of the workings of the National Department of Sport and Physical Education (departamento nacional de deporte y educacion fisica) and the everyday experiences of the SF's representative in the field--its physical education instructors.

Women's physical education was a field over which the SF gained almost exclusive control starting the late 1930's (both within the school system and as a leisure activity), and which it viewed, and used, as a powerful recruitment tool throughout its existence. The interest in physical activities and body perceptions as part of a general effort to shape and supervise gender relations is not specific to Spanish society under Franco. Processes similar to the ones I will discuss in this article took place under most of the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, and to a lesser extent in democratic societies. (5) The interest of the Franco regime, and that of the SF specifically, in issues concerning gender and the female body, far exceeded the field of physical education. Such an interest manifested itself in a long list of family laws; relentless references to demographic problems; and the attempt to create popular models of female beauty and aesthetics. But of all these issues that of female physical education stands out due the tensions it generated within the different sectors of the regime. The journalist Carmen Alcalde defined female physical education as a "national Catholic scandal", a view propagated by the church's representative Cardinal Segura, who saw physical education as "scandalous and lewd." (6) The decision to center my analysis on the issue of female physical education results, then, not only from the immense importance accorded to this field by the SF's leadership, but also because it can be singled out as an important crossroads in a heated public debate over sexuality, social class, political ideology and religious perceptions.

It is important to emphasize that this debate did not take place outside or at the fringes of the regime but rather raged within its institutions and between the different sectors, which helped shape its policy. Physical education classes for school girls and industrial workers were anchored in decrees of both the labor and the education ministries, but as we shall see, this did not deter schoolmistresses and employers from banishing the SF's instructors from their institutions. Furthermore, those instructors who did manage to get their foot in the door soon discovered that they had to struggle with educators, parents, and at times even the civil governors, in order to carry out certain sporting activities and impose discipline. In this respect an examination of the SF's policies, set within the a larger context of the period's social and cultural history and looked at from "above" and "below", might provide us with fresh insights as to the regime's nature and evolution through time.

Some scholars have drawn attention in recent years to the continued tensions between the main ideological forces operating within the regime (mainly the Catholic Church and the falangist and monarchist factions of the movimiento). But for the most part historians tended to see the regime as monolithic and hierarchical, with great emphasis being put on the formulation of policies as a one-sided, repressive process. Legislation and formal rhetoric were seen as a reflection of the regime's entire array of political, social and cultural stands. Where contradictions did surface they were either ignored or viewed as part of the liberalization process undergone by Spanish society in the 1960's and 1970's. A gendered and social perspective, which looks at everyday practices and the implementation of formal policies, highlights not only the gap between rhetoric and praxis, but also the non-linear nature of the regime's evolution. (7) In the case of the SF (not only in respect to physical education, but, as I have shown in other places, also to its labor and political policies) one can see a move from relative radicalism between the years 1936-1941 to self-enforced conservatism during the 1940's. This was the result of the Falange's progressive weakening following the fall of the fascist regimes, and growing role played by the Church and its lay representatives in the formulation of state policies. Yet such "conservatism" was relative and manifested itself more in the SF's rhetoric and its relations with the general female population than the everyday practices of its members. The liberalizing effects of the booming economy and a developing tourist industry of the 1960's created an atmosphere whereby rhetoric and legislative initiatives (such as the 1958 amendment of the civil code or the 1961 law for political and professional rights for women) could "catch up", so to speak, with the reality on the ground. (8) It is therefore only by looking at the evolution of the SF's policies over time, and piercing the screen of rhetoric, that we can point to their contradictory and autonomous nature from the very start.

The story of the SF's national leadership highlights one of the great dilemmas faced by fascist and proto-fascist regimes all over Europe. The very core of their existence rested on the adherence to a strict gender division, which glorified virility and man's active and public contribution to the nation. While men worked to produce a "new nation" women were called upon to reproduce its future sons. But this cult of motherhood and domesticity could only be enforced and supervised by other women (such as members of the SF in Spain or the Fasci Femminili in Italy). The extent to which these women could make use of their position in order to promote an autonomous political or social agenda depended on the structure and nature of the regime and of their own standing within it. But even in cases where such an influence was limited (as in the German case), or where a great identification existed between the goals of the regime and those of its female agents, the issue of compliance versus autonomy merits further investigation.

When examining the SF's physical education and sporting policy, specifically, we encounter a further paradox: While the Franco regime was less inclined than its German or Italian counterparts to invest time and funds in the creation of organized leisure culture for the masses, it did see sport as a powerful recruiting tool. The institution of compulsory physical education and the promotion of certain competitive sports (such as football) were viewed as a part of what historian Victoria de Grazia called a "culture of consent" and Arnd Kruger, in the Spanish case, "the culture of evasion." (9) Such activities were used to create spaces where discipline and state supervision acquired a somewhat more positive image and to bring both children and workers into the orbit of the movimiento. However, any attempt to extend more modernist notions of the human body to women encountered stern opposition, especially in a society where sporting tradition (popular or elite) was extremely weak to begin with. The institution of female physical education might have been one of the regime's declared goals, but on the ground the process was slow and problematic with little support being offered by government agencies other than the SF.

In Spain, like in Italy, the promotion of sports was entrusted not to the government but to the party. Unlike the Italian case, however, the consolidation of all activities concerning women (including children and workers) in the hands of the SF, secured its members a position of intermediaries between different public and private entities. (10) Unlike the German and the Italian case the SF official position was that most efforts and funds should be directed towards noncompetitive activities with no public exposure. In reality, however, one can find documents dealing with competitions for women and girls at provincial and national levels. There is also much information about participation of women athletes is large open-air demonstrations in front of a mixed audience. In the first rally organized by the Falange's youth movement in Sevilla on October 1938, for example, 1,600 girls and adolescents participated in public displays of gymnastics and regional dancing. A year later, in front of an audience of 100,000 people, amongst them general Franco himself, 1,450 girls (between the ages 8-12) participated in a gymnastics performance, and another 750 in mixed exercises with boys their own age. During the 1940's the number of such displays decreased but with their renewal in the 1950's the presence of girls and women remained constant. (11) The internal division between the different sporting fields sponsored by the SF also seems somewhat contradictory. Some (such as swimming, tennis or gymnastics) clearly fit the definition of "beauty sports"--that is, sports, which developed refined patterns of physical activity while maintaining harmony, posture and a supposedly minimal level of effort, and which were considered appropriate for women. The participation of women in some of the other fields (such as hand-ball, hockey or athletics), however, was at the center of a heated public debate in the post World II years (not only in Spain, but in the Anglo-Saxon world as well) due to their "masculine" nature.

The SF's objection to the commercialization of women's sports also raises questions concerning issues of class. Historian Mary Hall pointed to the role played by commercial sponsorship in widening the circle of participants in sporting activities in Western societies. (12) Women of the upper and upper middle class (who were exposed to sporting activities in private schools and universities) could afford to avoid participating in competitive and commercialized sporting events. However, for most working class women commercialized sport offered an opportunity not found elsewhere, with sponsors' willingness to provide not only uniforms and equipment, but also travel and training expenses. In the Spanish case one can point to two interrelated processes: at the heart of the SF's sporting ethos stood a middle class perception of women's sport, which emphasized refinement, self control and modesty. As a result the SF's leadership strongly opposed any attempt at commercialization. Yet, the organization did try to make up for the loss of private funding by founding a nationwide network of sporting teams open to all women (especially urban workers), which provided them with free uniforms, equipment and coaches. Such a network of sporting teams constituted one of many and varied attempts of bringing under the SF's control one of the most "problematic" populations in Francoist society, however, one can not ignore the fact that it also provided many women with organized sporting activities for the first time in their lives.

Keeping in mind these contradictions the current paper will attempt to answer some of the following questions: Which populations were targeted by the SF's sporting policies? To what extent was the promotion of female physical education used in order to bring under the SF's influence women who would have otherwise preferred to avoid any contact with the regime's official organs? Who were the SF's physical education instructors, and how did they see their role within the Francoist education system? Were their everyday working experiences a reflection of the organization's compliance with the coercive and regulatory role assigned to it by the regime? To what extent were the SF's more subversive messages concerning the female body evident in its agents' work "on the ground"? And finally, how did the SF's physical education policy affect its political standing and relations with other sectors within the Franco regime?

Moral sports and sporting morality: values, sporting fields and uniforms

The term "sport" serves me throughout this paper in its strict definition--that of organized sports, or: "The learning of game skills ... institutionalized through teaching and systematic preparation (by) organizations ... (clubs, schools and national sport organizations) whose purposes are to prepare competitors and regulate the competitions." (13) It is not my intention to look at spontaneous sporting activities or initiatives carried out in private clubs not under the supervision of the National Board for Physical Education (junta nacional de educacion fisica). The term "physical education", on the other hand, refers to the continued teaching and sporting activities carried out within the official school system. This sort of teaching was non-competitive by definition and aimed at exposing the largest number of girls to a basic level of physical activities over time.

Most historians agree that the appearance of sport as an organized, widespread, cultural phenomenon followed the formation of an urban middle class "to whom fell the pleasures and problems of using the free time, which accompanied their growing affluence in a manner that was both enjoyable and respectable." (14) In view of this it is not surprising that the common sporting ethos in many Western societies up to the 1950's was one which attempted to reflect and duplicate the bourgeois value system. Opening the world of sport to new audiences was a highly selective process: women earned their entry as long as they did not break with the refined image of respectable femininity. Workers were encouraged to take part in organized sport as an alternative to the popular, and supposedly illegitimate culture of the pub, the billiard hall and political meetings. But the ideological and practical control exercised over the introduction of such populations to the world of sport was forever a partial one. A dialectic movement between the need to conserve old social patterns, and the development of new ones marks the growth of women's sports all over the world, and is especially evident in the Spanish case.

The first Falangist correspondence concerning physical education was based to a large degree on the few references made by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the movement's founder, to the issue. Physical education and moral teachings were defined as the two central components of an integral human formation. Physical education had a social goal--the strengthening of group discipline, of the body and through it the spirit. At the same time all texts tried to make it clear that the Falange did not see physical education as an end in itself--a pagan notion. Falangist ideologies stressed time and again the Christian value of sport--physical activity as a way of bringing man closer to god. (15)

With the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 the SF's leadership started reorganizing its different departments, amongst them the department for sport and physical education, which was to be headed by Maria de Miranda. On the 24 of August 1939 de Miranda published a document outlining the goals of the new department, defining its scope of authority and different fields of action:

  The aim of this national department is to create strong, healthy
  women, capable of bringing forth a race of titans.... Women's physical
  education must be brought under our total control. We wish to be the
  official organization (in charge of this issue) and create a national
  school for physical education. (16)

In an opening ceremony of the national sporting championships for youth, held in Barcelona in 1939, Pilar Primo de Rivera called upon the participants:

  You, the youngest amongst us, can perhaps serve the SF best by
  demonstrating to Spain that the Falange is new, clean and agile like
  yourselves.... Furthermore you must remember that nothing is achieved
  in life by accident, those who win are always the best. (17)

However, such a complete adaptation of the discourse concerning the greatness of youth, and the pretension to be considered equal representatives of the Falange were both short lived. Even those falangists who propagated a more modernist outlook on the human body frowned upon any adaptation of these concepts to a female population, and within the boundaries of the newly formulated ideology of "National Catholicism" they certainly had no place. As a result the SF's leadership had no choice but to reestablish female physical education within its "right" context. In order to fend off accusations of ostentation it was decided that the majority of funds and efforts would not be channeled towards competitive sports, but rather to the construction of a widely based teaching apparatus, which would attempt to reach as many girls and women.

This aversion to professional sports was perhaps best expressed by the SF's leadership's contemptuous attitude towards the "professional woman athlete", who earned her living through participation in competitive sports. In Franco's Spain one was hard pressed to find any examples of professional women athletes prior to the 1960's, but this fictitious figure (which the official rhetoric mobilized every so often) was no doubt inspired by the American and Russian athletes of the post World War II period. Surprisingly enough lack of femininity was not part of the variety of insults heaped by the SF on this figure. Rather, it was playing for money, and the large budget needed for training such women, which were presented as unjustified and unprofessional. (18) The claim concerning the right of each woman for physical education and the need to reach large populations may sound impressive in its egalitarian nature, but one must not forget that the model of sporting as a leisure activity, un-sponsored and unpaid for, is a middle class model. The assumption that the only barrier in the way of a woman interested in practicing sports is the lack of facilities completely ignores the double workload of countless women, who after spending many hours at the factory or workshop had to come home to take care of their families. Any attempt to expose such women to the wonders of physical education within the different SF syndicates was doomed from the start without the cooperation of employers. If employers refused to set aside time for sporting activities within the workday itself only few and very determined women could be expected to take advantage of the facilities offered to them by the organization.

The discourse concerning female physical education in the 1940's had a pronounced moralistic tone. In order to win legitimatization and establish its standing in the post civil war political arena, the SF was forced to frame any discussion concerning the female body on at least a partial use of the acceptable images and values of the period. And such images and values were dictated to a large degree by the Catholic Church. An internal document written by Maria de Miranda in 1941 reflects the rhetorical acrobatics necessary in order to settle the contradictions between a totalizing political ideology and a Catholic worldview:

  In giving us this marvelous body God provided us with an immeasurable
  gift. Abandoning such a gift, not taking care of it using the best
  measures offered to us by science, constitutes ingratitude. And while
  the mission we are called to fulfill is not solely a moral one ... we
  are obliged to comply with our Christian duty ... (since) the essence
  of falangism is: religion and militia, spirituality and
  discipline. (19)

In another document by de Miranda from the same period it was claimed that the religious dictate against suicide also implies a need to strive vigorously for the continued improvement of one's health. (20) The SF's view, therefore, was that participation in physical education activities was a moral obligation.

During the 1950's, and early 1960's, the SF's rhetoric on female physical education underwent some changes. The new tone called to mind some of the organization's early references from the war years and was part of a more general realignment in its discourse on gender identities and women's role in society. On a legislative level the SF's leadership was striving to reform the civil code, so as to allow married women greater professional and legal freedom. On a rhetorical level the organization encouraged women to find a middle path between their personal needs and those of their families. The way this was translated into the field of physical education can be seen in a lecture given by the new head of the national department for sports and physical education, Concepcion Sierra y Gil de la Cuesta, in 1965. Gil de la Cuesta pointed to the partial improvement in women's standing in Spanish society, an improvement which manifested itself mainly in the labor field. In analyzing the conditions, which might allow further gender equality she presented the SF's view on the distinct social conditions necessary for long-term change:

  The process of social promotion we see today does not push women to
  exhaust their potential to its fullness. Such a process is limited to
  institutional and structural aspects. We need to act on the (following
  fronts) as well: the judicial, educational, economic and
  social.... (21)

The encouragement of women to enter the field of physical education was presented as an integral part of their general promotion in society. In quoting a research report analyzing the relation between women's level of institutionalized physical activities across Spanish territory and the level of their integration into public life Sierra y Gil de la Cuesta pointed to a high correlation between the two. (22) The two deviant Spanish territories identified by her were the Balearic Islands, where a high level of women's involvement in public life was reported despite the scarcity of institutionalized sporting culture. In Granada, on the other hand, where female sporting culture was well developed, a relatively low level of female presence in public life was noted. Gil de la Cuesta concluded that in the first case the lack of correlation was due to the existence of a developed tourist industry, which brought an unusual number of women into the labor field, regardless of other social and cultural conditions. In Granada, however, a complex web of "customs and world views typical to the South" made social and professional promotion of women extremely difficult. As interesting as this conclusion is it ignores an important question: why did the SF find it so difficult to develop a sustained sporting culture in an area exposed to diversified cultural and gendered influences, while in the South, with its "problematic" mentality it had a considerable success? Gil de la Cuesta's concluded:

  The timidity and passivity exhibited by some women in high positions
  is at times nothing more than a pattern of behavior resulting from
  social conditioning.... There is no doubt that the sporting world ...
  provides people with the strength to protect the essence of their
  personality. We therefore see in the (qualities) of leadership,
  initiative and decision making required in sport a perfect channel for
  promoting women's role in society. (23)

Citations such as this explain the theoretical importance accorded by the SF to physical education. In order to examine the way they were translated into everyday practices I would like now to look at the different fields of sport sponsored by the SF and at the different populations, which took part in its activities.

One of the most heated debates between the SF's leadership and the Church's hierarchy, from bishops and all the way down to mother superiors, centered on the issues of the appropriate fields of physical education for women. Just as on other issues it is possible to discern here as well the liberating effects of the civil war. A document from 1938, for example, detailed the sporting fields to be included in the practical training stage of the SF's physical education instructors. The list included: gymnastics, athletics, swimming, tennis, hockey, football and basketball. A further document from 1939 specified those fields to be included in the physical education curriculum in schools. Amongst these one can find gymnastics, athletics, regional dancing and singing. (24) During the same period the organization also endorsed mountaineering and skiing, yet stated that being expensive sports (in terms of the equipment needed) they could not gain priority. Despite such declarations it is important to note that it was precisely those two fields which gained immense popularity within the SF's boarding schools. Amongst university students, on the other hand, swimming and athletics were the two most popular fields. (25)

Fairly quickly the SF's leadership had to come to terms with the fact that at least three of the above mentioned fields were viewed as highly inappropriate for women by different sectors within the Francoist coalition. Female athletics, which in the eyes of many created "mannish" women, was banned by law between the years 1940-1963. The SF dispensed with athletics in schools and within its youth movement but kept providing its own members and physical education instructors with athletic activities. At the beginning of 1961 the national department for sport and physical education instructed all provincial delegates to re-introduce athletics in their installations, and when the official ban was finally lifted two years later 14 Spanish athletes participated at the mixed athletic championships, which took place in Madrid. (26)

Gymnastics was another field destined to cause many problems. Carlos Guttierez Salgdo, the SF's national advisor in this field, testified that Pilar Primo de Rivera had shown him more than once letters accusing the organization's instructors of morally corrupting the girls entrusted to their care. The bishop of Tarragona, for example, was shocked to discover that girls were told to exercise their abdominal muscles. The bishop of Galicia demanded that girls be instructed to exercise only their arms, claming that exercising the abdomen and buttocks was a highly immoral activity. (27) The reaction to such accusations was always the same. The instructors were told not to argue back for fear of worsening the situation, but neither were they allowed to change their program. All complaints had to be referred to the national hierarchy so they could be dealt with the appropriate authority and tact.

Finally, the problematic of all sporting fields proved to be swimming. The only bathing suit approved by the Church had to include "a skirt reaching the middle of the thigh, with short pants underneath and sleeves." (28) Under such conditions Pilar Primo de Rivera instructed all SF teams to train only in closed swimming pools and when those were not used by anyone else. Instructors were called upon to make sure that the girls would walk around with their bathing robes on, yet the SF's official bathing suit was sleeveless and had only a short skirt with no pants underneath.

While in urban centers and private schools moral problems, such as the length of uniforms and type of exercises, stood in the way of full implementation of the SF's physical education policies, in rural and working class areas there was a further economic problem. The SF's documents do not reveal differences in the budget and sporting ethos directed at different populations. However, the interviews I conducted paint a problematic picture. It seems that, at least until the late 1950's, physical education classes in many rural areas were carried out by local priests, as part of their role as the village teachers. The official reason for that was the lack of qualified SF instructors. It is certainly true that there were not enough instructors, and even in schools where there was a qualified physical education instructor she was in charge of teaching the entire school population--from kindergarten to the senior class. However, one cannot ignore the fact that despite the egalitarian rhetoric, the organization chose to resolve its human resources problem in many cases by cutting down instructors to the most backward areas where physical education classes at school were the only form of sporting activity available to most children. Girls who came from such areas arrived in the city only on their senior year in order to be examined by qualified SF instructors. M.J., a physical education instructor from La Rioja, told me of physical education classes in the villages and of the final exam carried out in Logrono:

  In the mountains around La Rioja there were physical education
  classes, but they were carried out by the local priest. The SF ordered
  physical education manuals for high school students. The manuals
  included tables and sketches of the exercises to be given by the
  priest. Those girls who came from the sierra, it's clear that there
  was no (relation) between what was written down and what they could
  do. But what could you do? You couldn't tell them (that). You had to
  let them pass. Even if the exercises came out real badly we gave them
  a good grade. We didn't fail anyone. (29)

During the 1940's the SF tried to bridge such gaps by accepting a certain number of students from rural areas as outside students in colleges in the cities (externas). According to the testimony of Andresa Lopez, who headed the SF's national school for physical education instructors Isabel la Catolica, this situation was slowly changing in the 1950's:

  In later, more advanced years, the SF recognized that there was a
  problem in the rural areas and this recognition brought about the
  creation of colegios menores. The SF gave out many scholarships, which
  enabled girls from the villages to receive a more comprehensive
  education. During the day they went to regular schools and in the
  afternoons they came to centers where there was a qualified physical
  education teacher. Such centers were active from at least 1956. (30)

At the beginning of the 1960's a new system of special schools--los San Benitos--was added. Los San Benitos were schools constructed by the SF in working class neighborhoods and rural centers, which functioned to a large extent like the colegios menores. But while the colegios were private institutions los San Benitos were recognized by the ministry of education as authorized to issue matriculations certificates. Each of the schools had an extensive program of physical education supervised by a qualified SF instructor.

Regarding the number of girls and women who participated in each sporting field sponsored by the SF, the only statistics I have been able to find were published by the organization itself. Despite their lack of accuracy and the methodological problem resulting from their use as a unique source, such statistics do point to general tendencies worth mentioning.

An internal document published in 1943 and again a year later situated the number of women in the SF's sporting teams at 7,514. Of those 4,000 were SF members (that is slightly over 2% of the organization's members at the time). (31) Amongst SF members one could see a clear preference to gymnastics and basketball. Third and fourth, in terms of size, were the hockey and handball teams respectively. Swimming and ski, on the other hand, attracted the lowest number of participants (32).

There is no doubt that such preferences were at least partly the result of financial dictates. Sports such as basket and handball were team sports characterized by a ratio of many participants to a coach. Their practice highlighted values such as coordination, cooperation and discipline, and the cost of facilities was relatively low. Gymnastics, despite the opposition of church leaders, was considered by many as a beauty sport appropriate for women, and the cost of facilities was very low here as well. Hockey, on the other hand, was a fast playing, high contact and more expensive sport, which was seen as somewhat "mannish". Because it gained much popularity amongst women it underwent some modifications at the beginning of the century (mainly concerning the amount of violence and physical contact allowed), which made it more gender appropriate. Unlike athletics, hockey was not banned by law in Spain and the SF mobilized in order to find a way of financing the required facilities, at least for its own members. Swimming was not only an expensive sport, but also a controversial one, as we have seen. The SF's leadership therefore decided to make it obligatory only in coast areas or in provinces were the organization's provincial delegate specifically demanded it. (33)

In 1948 the number of women participating in the SF sporting teams increased dramatically, reaching 94,605. (34) Out of those 69,747 were not SF affiliates. (35) In 1952 the number non-affiliated women increased to 103,888 and in 1954 reached a height of 184,631. (36) These numbers are illuminating since by then the general levels of recruitment within the SF were dropping drastically. The regime was fast approaching a phase where brute political repression was at its lowest (something which would change again to towards the late 1960's) and a growing emphasis was placed on peripheral (that is non direct) mobilizations through cultural enterprises. Hence the majority of women and girls who took part in the SF's sporting activities were not SF affiliates, but rather members in subordinate organizations such as the syndicates. Membership in these organizations did not necessarily imply ideological commitment and resulted in many cases from a wish to enjoy some of the health, education or leisure services offered by the SF. The organization's physical education and sporting policy, therefore, played a central part in the attempt at deepening its contacts with differing female populations.

However, by the mid 1960's something had changed. In 1965 the number dropped down to 113,312, a decrease of 39%. Internal documents from that time describe the growing resistance of many women to taking part in sporting activities forced upon them within different institutions, as well as the growing difficulties mounted by educational and cultural entities. In a letter written following a series of visits by Maria de Miranda to physical education classes given at the university of Madrid, the national delegate pointed to the deteriorating conditions of the facilities as the reason for the lack of discipline:

  The majority of gymnastic classes are conducted in deplorable
  conditions, when they are carried out at all. It often happens that
  the professor faced with a great number of students and the inadequacy
  of the spaces allotted decides to cancel the class, limiting herself
  to taking the names of those present. (37)

But the same document demonstrates that it was not necessarily the general conditions, but rather many students' lack of interest, which caused difficulties. According to de Miranda herself it was often "impossible to have silence and the instructor had to yell in order to be heard, something which jeopardized her health." (38) To the lack of interest on part of the students one must add the opposition of many educational and cultural entities to the presence of physical education instructors. In the 1940's and 50's this was the result of many people's view that physical education in general was not appropriate for women. The 1960's, on the other hand, brought with them new and better alternatives to the classes offered by the SF. The general improvement in the economic situation brought about the foundation of private sporting clubs in urban centers, and the new Law of Association (1964) increased the choice of legal associations available to women, bringing with it new cultural alternatives. New discourses on the female body and the role of women in society had to wait the death of general Franco in order to gain a public voice, but that of the SF was already loosing ground.

The issue of sporting uniforms was another source of friction with Church authorities, and where the SF's more liberal and modernizing influence was felt. The severe dress code imposed on Spanish women in the years following the war was incompatible with most types of physical activity. In the beginning of the 1940's the archbishop of Toledo, Enrique Pla y Daniel, summarized in the following words women's dress requirements:

  Clothes should be long enough in order to cover most of the leg,
  something reaching the knee is not sufficient. An exposed neck is an
  immoral (sight) due to the intentions it conveys and the scandal it
  might cause. Sleeves which do not cover the elbows should be
  considered immoral as well. (39)

The central problems concerned the length of uniforms and the use of pants. Pants were considered mannish and immoral because they closed on the front and accentuated the waistline. The struggle to incorporate pants as part as women's sporting uniforms lasted almost twenty years and necessitated every bit of diplomacy the SF could master. The first sporting fields in which pants were used already in 1941 were skiing and mountaineering. This was not so much due to the impossibility of practicing such sports with a skirt, but rather because the majority of women who practiced these sports were SF members. Within the organization's sporting facilities Pilar Primo de Rivera was better able to dictate the use of uniforms she saw fit. Even more importantly, perhaps, is the fact that in the eyes of the SF's leadership its own members were perceived as less susceptible to possible "moral corruption" resulting from the use of pants, bathing suits, or the practice of athletics or hockey.

In the field of gymnastics the situation was more complex. In order to turn it into a popular sport and incorporate its instructors in as many schools as possible, the organization had to compromise. Of such compromise was born the famous Spanish bombacho. But these puffed up pants, which were supposed to look like a skirt and were zipped on the side, did very little to alleviate the Church's fears, especially when decree number 492 (which regulated the SF's sporting uniforms) stated that a bombacho of a minimal length could reach mid-thigh. (40) At the same time it is important to note that in other fields girls still wore skirts throughout the 1940's, and if bare arms and neck were perfectly acceptable to the SF the waist and hips hopelessly complicated the situation. (41)

The difficulties encountered by physical education instructors are reflected in the decrees published by the department for sport and physical education during those years. The need to make students dispense with unnecessary clothing items (such as scarves, undershirts and coats) was emphasized time and again. Other documents dealt with the demand that despite the objections of some headmistresses students would take off belts and corsets during class for fear of blood circulation problems. (42) The opposition of teachers, parents, and at times even the students themselves only emphasizes Primo de Rivera's assertion about the need to fight not only old fashioned theories, but also (and perhaps mainly) the collective mentality of both men and women.

The relative political and economic stabilization, which characterized the late 1950's and 1960's, and the hesitant penetration of new cultural influences, brought about a process of socio-cultural liberalization, which was almost unnoticed at first. This process also influenced women's dress code. The arena of physical education in the 1950's saw a significant shortening of uniforms, and in a growing number of fields, the use of short pants (at time topped with a short skirt) was becoming obligatory.

But the 1950's also exposed more acutely the internal contradictions, which the SF's physical education policy generated. The SF's instructors were sent to teach girls and young women how to care for their bodies and exercise muscles no one dared talk about. The result was a creation of a protected space where short and relatively attractive uniforms, collective undressing and showering were considered legitimate. The organization's leadership now had to face the fact that such patterns of behavior, in combination with natural youthful curiosity, might have led to a more liberal conduct than anticipated. As a result one can find many documents from this period demanding that girls not be photographed standing too close together, holding hands and so forth. Certain documents, such as this one written by Syera Manteola, insisted:

  In the dressing rooms one must take extra care when dressing and
  undressing together. The fact that we are all women does not mean we
  should forget our moral obligations.... Under no conditions must men
  be allowed into the dressing rooms, even when all players are fully
  dressed. (43)

Agents of social change--health, personal care, and theoretical knowledge in the training of the SF's physical education instructors

Any discussion concerning the SF's physical education policy cannot be completed without a reference to the women who spearheaded the organization's activities in this field--its physical education and youth instructors. The personal experiences of those women are of great interest since they reflect many of the contradictions inherent to the SF's policy. Moreover, the conflicted nature of their working relations are perhaps the best proof of the tensions, which female physical education generated within the different sectors of the regime and their representatives.

Luis Carrero Eras divided the professional history of those women to three major periods: during the civil war and until 1950, when their training took place in local centers loosely coordinated by the national department for sport and physical education; between the years 1951-1956 when an attempt was made to unify the training process by limiting it to the SF's national schools for general instructors Isabel la Catolica in Avila and Teresa de Jesus in Madrid; between 1956-1977 when all training took place at the national school for physical education Ruiz de Alda in Madrid. (44) Such periodization attests to the SF's attempts to centralize the training process and gain as much control as possible over the instructors' working conditions once graduated. Since female physical educators hardly existed in Spain prior to the 1940's (unlike in Nazi Germany for example, where the party had to contend with an "inheritance" of well tried instructors, with whom it had no ideological affinity) the SF's relationship with its trainees was mutually exclusive from the start. Training could take place only within the SF's institutions and the organization dictated the instructors' working conditions (hours and payment), as well as where they would work. In return the young women who chose to become physical education instructors gained not only a new profession, but also an official status within one of the regime's organs.

The first national course for physical education instructors opened during the war, when most teaching facilities were still largely closed. The course took place in Santander and because of the lack of funding and other problems produced by the war lasted a month and a half only (11.6.38-29.7.38). The organization's insistence on holding the course when most teaching institutions did not yet open their gates shows its great importance to the SF. The theoretical classes included: two daily hours of anatomy and physiology; history of physical education; theory of the sport. The list of practical classes is of special interest since it includes sporting fields, which were to be banned by the regime in later years and would continue to be taught only within the SF's facilities. Training included: gymnastics with apparatuses; athletics; swimming; tennis; basketball; football; regional dancing and singing; hockey; children's games. Out of all these fields only dancing and tennis fell under the definition of "beauty sports" discussed earlier. As we can see, team sports were an important part of the SF's training load from the start, and so were the different fields of athletics and gymnastics. Under the category of children's games were included not only physical games such as tug and catch but also symbolic and imaginative activities, which made use of dolls and other accessories. The decision to include such activities in the training process points to a relatively advanced pedagogical outlook, which saw in the development of children's emotional and psychological world a prerequisite for their cognitive and social development. Into this emotional / psychological medium the instructors integrated values based on a rigid division of gender roles: girls played with dolls and objects relating to family life and house work, while boys were given toy soldiers, weapons and working tools.

Thirty-four instructors successfully graduated from the first course and it was decided to open a second one already in September of the same year. The documents produced by the national department for sport and physical education do not provide personal information about the graduates prior to the year 1949 and it seems that the only requirement was that they would be high school graduates. With the opening of the SF's national schools--Isabel la Catolica and Teresa de Jesus--new entry requirements were added and the courses extended over two years.

A document published in 1957 detailing the requirements for instructors at the school Ruiz de Alda indicates a further process of specialization. Students had to be high school graduates, single women, Spanish by nationality and between the ages of 16-20 during registration. (45) All students had to be interned, and the course lasted three years. From the list of general courses (which included religion, politics and civic studies, drawing lessons and either English or French as a second language) one can discern the SF's wish to produce instructors with a relatively wide cultural background and political awareness.

Theoretical courses included physiology and anatomy as well as classes in movement analysis, hygiene, first aid and remedial physical education. This list is in accordance with a growing process of specialization in the field of physical education throughout the western world. The interest in forms of physical education as a therapy to the disabled reflects currents brought from abroad as well as the SF's growing interest in the field of special education and care for the handicapped. Other courses also included classes in psycho-pedagogy. The instructors' practical training included classes in all sporting fields taught by the SF including compulsory athletic classes, and most surprisingly, fencing.

The demanding workload during those three years was somewhat mitigated by courses given by foreign professors and training time spent in physical education schools all over Europe, especially in Switzerland and Germany. M.J., a former student in Ruiz de Alda, told me of the time she had spent in 1962 at the McColine's a school for physical education in Switzerland. Besides a variety of courses she was also exposed there to the company of other young women who arrived from all over Western Europe along with their different customs and fashions. One of her most vivid memories was of the French students:

  The French girls wore bikinis during swimming classes. During
  training, when the professor herself was in the pool they changed to a
  complete bathing suit, but as soon as she came out--not when the class
  was over but when the professor stepped out of the pool--they put
  their bikinis on again (46)

The use of bikinis during class, while in Spain the debate still raged whether women should even wear bathing suits in public, was something which carved its way into M.J.'s memory. Years later (in 1974) she would use this anecdote in order to make clear to her own students, not the neutrality in the use of a bikini, but rather the fact "that rules are rules", that is that even "the French" (las francesas as she called them) in McColine would wear a complete bathing suit when the professor was in the pool.

If the training received by the SF's physical education instructors was extensive, so were the demands made on them, demands which far exceeded the role of teaching. Internal correspondence shows that those women were seen as the organization's spearhead in an indifferent, and at time even hostile, education system. Their task was to provide a personal and attractive example of the "new woman" the SF wished to fashion. The physical aspects of such a model did not manifest themselves through sporting activities only, but extended to teachings relating to personal hygiene and aesthetics. A letter written by the national delegate for sport and physical education addressed to the SF's instructors in 1952 stated the requirements from them:

  (The instructor) can not wear in class the skirt, blouse or underwear
  she wears outside of the class. She must be clean and look clean. She
  must wear her hair short and if she does not she must arrange it in an
  appropriate way when teaching. She must, and this is of a special
  importance, watch her figure. It is important that the instructor
  maintain a refined and attractive look so as to encourage her students
  to perform the exercises she gives them .... (in order) to do so the
  instructor (who in the best of cases might no longer be young, and
  might even be married) must keep her body beautiful, agile and
  elegant. (47)

In order to accomplish all of that, instructors were ordered to maintain a strict diet and exercise at home as well.

The memoirs of Magui Leon Llorante, a former SF physical education instructor, testify to the tensions which existed between those women and the education system of which they were part. Llorante described a working day, which ended at 21:00, and at times included weekends and holidays as well--a workload that did not go hand in hand with married life. She felt that as far as issues of physical education were concerned during the 1940's the attitude of headmistresses and other teachers was at best one of indifference. (48) In her interview M.J. testified that upon completing her course for physical education instructors, and being sent to La Rioja, she was assigned to her old school from which she graduated 10 years earlier. It was a private school run by the Church and the headmistress was a young nun, who graduated the same year as M.J. At the end of her first teaching year, her 10 old year students participated in a gymnastics display organized by the school. One of the exercises included a handstand which the girls performed wearing bombachos. According to M.J. most of the young nuns passed by expressing their admiration at the girls' skills, but one of the older nuns was scandalized by the way they were exposing their legs in public. At the end of the day M.J. was told by the headmistress that as impressive as the display was, one must take into consideration the older nuns' feelings and she was asked to refrain from further handstands in public. From her testimony it seems clear that despite the SF's official position that the content of classes should not be modified, she made a personal decision to sacrifice handstands for the sake of good working relations. The pressure felt by the instructors during their working day touched their private lives as well, as can be seen from the testimony of Magui Llorante Leon:

  With my Vespa I was at least spared the difficulty of moving between
  the schools, but I was half frozen because I couldn't wear pants. They
  wouldn't allow it neither at the schools nor at some of the secular
  centers. And when it was a gymnastics class you had to change in a
  hurry in whatever corner they set aside for you. (49)

But despite the difficulties it seems that many instructors managed to conquer a special place for themselves at the hearts of their students. From the interviews I conducted it seems that this was not only as a result of their attractive and youthful looks and spirit. M.J. and Andresa Lopez agreed that this was partly the result of the nature of an instructor's job. Most instructors worked with the same students starting their first year in kindergarten and up to their last year of high school. Or in the words of M.J:

  Physical education teachers gave classes since kindergarten, since
  they were little ... helping them take down their pants in order to go
  to the toilet. You cannot have a relationship with (a professor) you
  have in high school like you do with (a professor) you've had since
  primary (school). With the physical education teacher you usually had
  a good relationship, because when you were little she was the one
  shouting at you, or giving you a candy or whatever ... (50)

In the eyes of M.J. and Lopez the instructors' special standing resulted from a combination of this special relationship with the children and the ability to set clear limits:

  I used to get so fed up with this 'you just wait until M. got here',
  and when I did the children stopped playing in the corridors, and do I
  don't know what.... We, the physical education teachers, did it (set
  limits) better than anyone, because we were accustomed to giving
  orders. We were teaching in an open classroom and it's not the same as
  standing behind a desk.... You cannot imagine a physical education
  class without shouting at someone. You cannot plead with them
  'children, children, please run'. You have to shout at them RUN OR
  ELSE. It's very different from sitting behind a desk. (51)

From the early 1950's the difficulties entailed in the instructors' job, as well as the high entry-level qualifications and the lengthy training period required of them were rewarded by relatively high salaries. According to statistics provided by Maria Luisa Zagalas Sanchez for the city of Jaen it seems that at the end of the 1950's an average salary of a high school physical education teacher stood at 3,000 pesetas, while that of a temporary teacher at an entry level position was 2,000 pesetas. (52) For the sake of comparison one should keep in mind that the national delegate's salary at that time was 3,180 pesetas, while those of the different heads of national services were anywhere between 2,232-1,860 pesetas.

The Spanish historian Alicia Alted stated that the SF was born within the Franco regime and its development was inseparable from that of the latter. (53) The organization's physical education policy, as well as its stand on other issues such as women's legal, professional or political promotion, continually reflected the internal contradictions inherent to such a development. The SF's physical education instructors taught new generations of girls and young women to enjoy and take pride in their bodies, to nurture them and even publicly expose them in the only way deemed moral. Such teachings, anchored in more extrovert and modernist body perceptions, which stood at the heart of fascist and semi fascist ideologies all over Europe, did not always go hand in hand with the Francoist moral system. The main tensions emerged in the organization's relations with the Church hierarchy that saw the SF's physical education policy as a threat to both the moral order it wished to enact and its control over the education system. Such tensions never disappeared, despite the instructors' continued adherence to a discourse, which glorified women's modesty and their "universal" role as mothers.

On a practical level one cannot ignore the fact that at the end of the civil war the number of Spanish women who took part in official sporting activities was 2,800. In 1965, however, the number reached 113,302--an increase of about 4,000%. Such an increase reflected an unprecedented exposure of women to a variety of new sporting fields from which they were banned in the past. This progress was achieved within the boundaries of an authoritarian regime, while constantly struggling against backward and chauvinistic mentalities. Yet at the same time we must not forget that it was not the yearning for individual freedom and new forms of personal expression which motivated the SF's physical education policy, but rather the glorification of discipline and the need to reach new audiences within Spanish society, which "refused" to be captivated by Falangist ideology. The very same resistance, which the organization's policy encountered within the Francoist coalition, turned it into a powerful political tool by highlighting the SF's uniqueness and establishing its position as an independent entity with a distinct political and social program. This position was further enhanced by the SF's central role in the maintenance of a "culture of consent". By presenting a more human and nurturing face of the regime and positioning its members as intermediaries between different female populations as well as public and private institutions the organization proved its usefulness far beyond that of other sectors within the movimiento.

During the 1960's the number of women athletes, as well as the attention paid to competitive sports in general, and to Spain's participation in international sporting events in particular, was growing. A large number of the women athletes who made a name for themselves during that period had initially trained under the supervision of the SF, but as we have seen, the organization itself was losing its monopoly in this area. However, such a loss of control did not result in my view from the better services provided by private clubs, and not even from the general weakening of the movimiento, but rather from the great paradox inherent to the SF's development. In the field of physical education, as in other fields with which my research is concerned, the SF managed to generate a more liberal value system and personal experiences than those promoted by the Franco regime. But the very same organization proved unable (both ideologically and structurally) to contain the changing needs and aspirations of thousands of Spanish women. While some came to find the SF as too radical, for others it was not egalitarian and innovative enough. Despite the distinctiveness of the SF's sporting ethos, and the effect it had on the lives of many women in specific junctions of their lives, in the long run even this attractive, and seemingly non-political, mobilization tool could not resolve the paradox and boost the organization's popularity and membership.

Institute for History and Culture of Latin America

Israel

ENDNOTES

1. "Hubo de lucharse contra: Una mentalidad colectiva preexistente basada en ideas atrasadas, conceptos erroneos, ideas exclusivamente teoricas.... Una actitud de la mujer, consecuencia de lo anterior que ... mantenia el aislamiento ... (y) una actitud atavica del hombre celtiberico." Asociacion Nueva Andadura (henceforth ANA), Serie Azul, Carp. 41, doc. 3, p.3.

2. "La labor realizada por las instructoras y profesoras de EF en el periodo investigado fue decisiva para erradicar todos los tabues que coaccionaba a la mujer espanola que queria practicar actividad fisico deportivo." L. Carrero Eras, "La actividad fisico deportiva de la mujer en Espana 1938-1978", tesis doctoral, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, (Madrid, 1995), p.865.

3. A. Jarne, La Seccio Femenina a Lleida (Lleida, 1991); I. Blasco Herranz, Armas Fe-meninas para la Contrarrevolucion (Malaga, 1999); J.M. Palomares Ibanez, La Guerra Civil en la Ciudad de Valladolid--Entusiasmo y Represion en la "Capital del Alzamiento" (Valladolid, 2001), pp. 91-100.

4. See for example: A. Gomez Morcillo, True Catholic Womanhood--Gender Ideology in Franco's Spain (DeKalb, 2000), pp. 101-128; R. Coca Hernando, "Towards a New Image of Women under Franco: the Role of the Seccion Femenina," in International Journal of Iberian Studies, vol.11 (1), 1998, pp. 5-13.

5. For the development of women's sports under liberal regimes, see: J.A. Mangan & R.J. Park (eds.), From "Fair Sex" to Feminism--Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras (London, 1987); K.E. McCrone, Sport and the Physical Emancipation of English Women 1870-1914 (London, 1988); S.K. Cahn, Coming on Strong--Gender and Sexuality in 20th Century Women's Sport (Cambridge MS, 1994).

6. C. Alcalde, Muejeres en el franquismo: exiliadas, nacionalistas y opositoras, p.80.

7. In this respect I agree with Juan Linz, who saw the Franco regime as an example not of a totalitarian regime but an authoritarian one. Its ruling elite manifested limited ideological heterogeneity, which only grew in time, with the lessening of repression and the different evolutionary path, which the regime's "families" (falangists, monarchists and the Catholic Church and its different representatives) took.

For the authoritarian nature of the Franco regime, see: J. J. Linz, "An Authoritarian Regime: Spain" in E Allardt & Y. Littunan (eds.), Cleavages, Ideologies and Party Systems (Helsinki, 1964).

For works emphasizing the distinct political and social agenda of the regime's different political families, see: J. Tusell, Franco y los catolicos: la politica interior espanola entre 1945-1957 (Madrid, 1984); M.A. Ruiz Carnicer, El sindicato Espanol Universitario (SEU) 1939-1965 (Madrid, 1996); A. Cazorla Sanchez, Las politicas de la Victoria: la consolidacion del Nuevo Estado franquista (1938-1953) (Madrid, 2000).

8. For more details concerning this non-linear evolution within the SF, see: I. Ofer, "Historical Models--Contemporary Identities: the Seccion Femenina of the Spanish Falange and its Redefinition of Term 'Femininity,' Journal of Contemporary History (to be published in October 2005); Ibid., "Gender Legislation of the Seccion femenina de la FET--Bridging the Gap between Elite and Mass Politics," Historia y Politica, (to be published in November 2005).

9. V. de Grazia, The Culture of Consent--Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy (Cambridge, 1981). A. Kruger, "Strength through Joy: the Culture of Consent under Fascism, Nazism and Francoism," in Lames Riordan & Arnd Kruger (eds.), The International Politics of Sports in the 20th Century (London, 1999), pp.67-89.

10. For details on female physical education under fascist regimes, see: V. de Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women, pp. 162-3, 210-19

11. A. Alcoba, Auge y Ocaso del Frente de Juventudes (Madrid, 2002), pp.56-112.

12. A. Hall, The Girl and the Game--a History of Women's Sports in Canada (Peterborogh, 2002), p.78.

13. Hall, The Girl and the Game, p.4.

14. McCrone, Sport and the Physical Emanicipation of English Women, p.11.

15. "La formacion moral y educacion fisica de la mujer", ANA, serie azul, carp. 41. doc. 41. Amongst the first thinkers to write about the relation between sport and Christian values were Baron Pierre de Coubertin and Father Henri Didon. George Williams, founder of the YMCA in England also wrote already in 1850 about sport and its role in conquering the hearts of the youth for god.

16. "Por eso nos esforzamos en la reorganizacion de este departamento central de cuya labor han de surgir las mujeres fuertes y sanas y capaces de forjar una raza de titanes.... La educacion fisica de la mujer ha de estar totalmente en nuestros manos. Queremos ser el organismo oficial y crear una escuela nacional de educacion fisica femenina."

Maria de Miranda, "Instrucciones para la organizacion de cursos provinciales de educacion fisica", ANA, serie azul, carp. 41, doc. 57.

17. "Vosotras que sois lo mis joven de nuestra SF quiza la sirvierais mejor asi, al aire demostrandole a Espana que la Falange es nueva y limpia y agil como sois vosotras.... Y ademas teneis que saber que en la vida no se consigue nada por casualidad, vencen siempre los mejores."

"Discurso de Pilar Primo de Rivera en el primer Campeonato Nacional de deportes en Barcelona", Ibid., doc. 14.

18. Plan general de educacion fisica, Ibid., carp.80, doc 15bis.

19. "Al dotarnos dios nuestro creador de un organismo tan maravilloso nos hizo un don inapreciable y dejarlo en el abandono sin cuidar de favorece su desarrollo por aquellos medios que la ciencia nos dice ser los mejores seriz una verdadera ingratitud. Si bien noso-tras no seamos llamadas al apostolado exclusivamente moral ... tenemos la obligacion de facilitar el cumplimiento de las obligaciones de catolicos. El espiritu de la falange: religion y milicia, espiritualidad y disciplina."

Maria de Miranda, Necesidad de la education fisica, Ibid., carp. 42, doc, 49.

20. Maria de Miranda, Manera de servir, Ibid.,, doc, 44.

21. "En el modo de hoy esta promocion social no lleva a la mujer hacia su plenitud.... Este sentido humano y social es lo que precisare el marco institucional y las estructuras que condicionan la tarea femenina. Las que podemos resumir: juridicas, educacionales, economicas, sociales ...".

Concepcion Sierra y Gil de la Cuesta, "El deporte--ocasion y promocion de la mujer en la sociedad", Ibid., carp. 118, doc. 45.

22. I have not been able to identify the specific work on which this reference is based, but the importance lies less in the validity of the actual information and more in the SF's position, as reflected by its use, concerning the relation between the different components of social promotion of which physical education was one.

23. "La timidez y pasividad que la mujer demuestra ante el ascenso a una funcion rectora no es a veces mis que un condicionamiento de nuestro comportamiento y aptitudes por el medio social. No hay duda por lo tanto que el encuadro juridico del deporte.... Es el que concede un poder a las personas para proteger la esencia de su personalidad y sus mas importantes cualidades. Por eso vemos en el capitanear en el inaugurarse en el decidir para si y los demas que el deporte exige, el sistema mejor para el perfeccionamiento del propio "papel" humano femenino."

ANA, carp. 118, doc. 45.

24. Ibid., doc. 13.

25. Carrero Eras, "La actividad fisico deportiva de la mujer en Espana," pp.289.

26. ANA, serie azul, carp. 118, doc. 13; serie rojo, carp. 1084, pp.221-238.

27. Ibid., serie roja, carp. 1084, pp.818-819.

28. Juan Esclava Galan, Coitus Interruptus--la represion sexual y sus heroicos alivios en la Espana Franquista (Barcelona, 1997), p.102.

29. "En la Rioja, por ejemplo, en la sierra. Estudiaban bachillerato, pero lo estudiaban con el cura. Eso, los alumnos libres. Entonces la SF invito unos libros que tenian de gimnasia. Eran unos libros que eran para bachiller, para magisterio. Estos libros tenian unas tablas, primero del bachiller, unas tablas con una serie de ejercicios, unas tablas completas que les daba. Y generalmente, esas tablas se les ensena en el parroco. Y claro que los ninos que venian de la Sierra ... como lo habian aprendido con el cura, lo que decia el papel y lo que hacia el nino, se parecia nada. ?Pero tu que puedes hacer? Tu no puedes decir mira ... no! Se aprobamos. Si salio un poco mal le ponia una buena nota. No se suspendio a nadie, nadie."

An interview with the autor, Madrid, 15.12.04.

30. "Habia una otra epoca, ya mas evolucionada, en que la SF se dio cuenta de estos problemas rurales y entonces creo lo que se llamaron Colegios Menores. Entonces la SF tenia un sistema de becas muy amplia (y) podian acceder estos ninos de los pueblos y recibir una educacion mas completa. Iban al colegio y lo completaban en centros donde habia una profesora de educacion fisica titulada, y donde habia una organizacion normativa."

An interview with the autor, Madrid, 15.12.04.

31. ANA, serie azul, Ibid., carp. 42, doc. 44.

32. Ibid., doc.36; Ibid., carp.41, doc.66; Ibid., carp.43, doc.70.

33. Ibid., carp.41, doc.27.

34. Ibid., carp. 117, doc. 69.

35. Ibid., carp.80, doc.26.

36. Ibid., carp.83, doc.35.

37. "Las clases de gimnasia en su mayoria se realizan en condiciones deplorables cuando se llevan a cabo, pues llega a darse el caso que la profesora ante la gran afluencia de alumnas y lo pequeno de local de que dispone, opta por suprimir la clase, limitandose a recoger las tarjetas de asistencia que las alumnas le entregan tras de lo cual se marcharan." Ibid., carp.117, doc.27.

38. "El silencio no se logra. La profesora se esfuerza inutilmente en hacerse oir con gran dano para su garganta y consiguiente peligro de enfermar." Ibid.

39. "Los vestidos no deben ser tan cortos que no cubran la mayor parte de la pierna: no es tolerable que lleguen solo a la rodilla. Es contra la modesta el escote, y los hay tan atrevidos que pudieran ser gravemente pecaminosos por la deshonesta intencion que revelan o por el escandalo que producen. Es contra la modestia el llevar la manga corta de manera que no cubre el brazo, al menos hasta el codo."

Juan Esclava Galan, Coitus Interruptus, p.97.

40. ANA, serie azul, carp.84, doc.48.

41. As can see from a document published in 1943, which stated that skirts must reach the knee and be puffed up so that the bodyline could be seen. "La falda pantalon deberia cubrir la rodilla y ser amplia para no marcar la forma del cuerpo." Ibid., carp. 42, doc. 51.

42. Ibid., carp.84, doc.40. In March 1954, following confrontations with several headmistresses SF general secretary, Syera Manteola, published a decree ordering instructors to suspend students who showed up to class without the required uniform.

43. "En los vestuarios deberan tener extremo cuidado en la forma de desnudarse y ve-stirse en colectividad. No por ser todas mujeres tienen que olvidar el debido recato. En forma ninguna y bajo ningun concepto se permite la entrada de los entrenadores ni hombre alguno en los vestuarios de las jugadoras, aunque estas estan vestidas."

ANA, serie azul, carp. 83, doc. 19.

44. An internal SF report from 1962 situated the number of women who graduated from these different programs at 1,022. Of those 452 graduated from Ruiz de Alda and another 570 from Isabel la Catolica. Another 2,849 instructors received their training in local centers prior to the year 1950. For the full report see: Ibid., carp. 117, doc.69.

45. Carrero Eras, "La actividad fisico deportiva de la mujer en Espana", pp.221-238.

46. "... en la escuela de educacion fisica cuando teniamos la clase de natacion las francesas, en el ano 62 que se vayan con un bikini se ponian un banador completo. Y cuando la profesora salia de la piscina, no cuando terminaba la clase, cuando la profesora salia de la piscina, se cambiaban y se ponian el bikini."

An interview with the author, Madrid, 15.12.04.

47. "(la Profesora) no puede usar para la clase la falda con que va por la calle, ni los zapatos, ni las medias, ni la blusa, ni la ropa interior. Tiene que ser limpia y tener aspecto de limpia ... debe tener el pelo corto, o si no lo tiene, recogerselo para dar su clase. Debe, y eso es fundamenta, cuidar su linea. Es muy importante que la profesora de gimnasia o deporte tenga un aspecto fino, atractivo, de modo de que las alumnas desean realizar esas actividades que ella ensena y ... conseguido conservar a la instructora (que o lo mejor ya no esta joven o esta casada) un cuerpo bonito, elastico y airoso."

ANA, serie azul, carp.81, doc.8.

48. M. Leon Llorente, Voces del silencio: memorias de instructora de juventud de la SF, (Madrid, 2000), p.74.

49. "Menos mal que con mi vespa tenia mas facil los desplazamientos. Pero pasaba un frio porque otro inconveniente era que no podia ir con pantalones, pues ni en los colegios ni en algunos seglares admitian que fueras vestidas asi, por lo que cuando la clase era de gimnasia tenia que cambiarme de indumentaria deprisa y corriendo en cualquier cuartito que te ofrecian."

Ibid., p. 74-5.

50. "Y luego por ejemplo que en el colegio los profesores de educacion fisica damos clases desde el jardin desde que estuvo pequeno ... colocar los pantalones y se han puesto a hacer pis. No puede tener la misma relacion cuando estando en el segundo que un profesor que acabo de tener en el primero ... Entonces (con) el profesor de educacion fisica, generalmente se queda una buena relacion. Porque cuando tu estaba pequeno (te) da un grito, o un caramelo, o te hace no se que."

An interview with the author, Madrid, 15.12.04.

51. "... (Yo) estaba hasta la nariz con "que viene Minerva" y cuando viene Minerva dejaban de jugar en el pasillo, dejaban de no se que. Eso nos hacemos mejor las profesoras de educacion fisica porque estamos acostumbrados a mandar. Y porque tenemos la aula abierta. Entonces no es lo mismo dar la clase en una clase pequena que te pones detras de la mesa a un sitio.... Porque tu no entiendes una clase de educacion fisica sin que le des un grito a un nino. Tu no puedes decir en una clase de educacion fisica ninitos, ninitos correis. QUE CORRES! Es muy distinto eso a sentarte en una mesa.

Ibid.

52. Zagalas Sanchez, La educacion fisica femenina (1940-1970). Analisis y estudio de la ciudad de Jaen, p.355.

53. Alicia Alted Vigil, "Las mujeres en la sociedad espanola de los anos cuarenta," La mujer en la Guerra civil Espanol III Jornada de estudios monograficos (Salamanca, 1989), p.298.

By Inbal Ofer

Tel Aviv University