Citizens and housewives: the problem of female citizenship in Spain's transition to democracy.

The relationship between women and citizenship has been contentious in the western European liberal and democratic tradition. From the debates over women's participation in the sections during the French Revolution through more than a century of exclusion from the suffrage to more recent discussions about the social rights of citizenship, the category of female citizen has always been problematic, torn between the universal language of citizenship and the "difference" associated with women. This article will explore the tensions and contradictions around the relationship between women and citizenship during the transition to a new democratic regime in Spain in the 1970s.

Periods of political and social transition offer a fertile space for the (re)construction of citizenship practices and ideals. At these moments, individuals' relationships to the state and to each other can be questioned and sometimes re-negotiated. As a result, such transitions provide an ideal context for the historical analysis of how citizenship practices and ideals are created, contested and imagined. In the Spanish case, the country underwent a fairly rapid social and economic transition in the 1960s and 70s from an agrarian-based economy with a Church-dominated culture to an industrial, urbanized and secularized society. The capstone of this transition was the political evolution from an authoritarian to a formally democratic regime, which began after Francisco Franco's death in late 1975 and culminated with the new Constitution of December 1978. As part of this transition, a new nation of democratic citizens was needed, both as protagonists of the process and as recipients of new sets of rights and re sponsibilities.

While both male and female citizenship had to be re-framed, the problematic was different in each case. Since 1939, the Franco regime had institutionalized a version of female identity rooted in women's exclusive role in the patriarchal family.1 The combination of social and economic transformations and political democratization made this ideal seem increasingly anachronistic, but creating a new "democratic female citizen" proved to be a conflicted and ultimately unresolved process. My project attempts to map and understand this process by exploring the dynamic space where female citizenship was being reconstituted. Specifically, this article examines the role of women's housewife associations in the 1970s, both as protagonists and as discursive subjects, in the re-working of female citizenship. More broadly, it examines the consequences for Spain's transition to democracy and in how we conceive both the process of transition and the construction of citizenship.

Gender, Citizenship and the Transition: A Problematic Relationship

To frame such an analysis of citizenship and the transition requires a rethinking of the way these categories are used in the dominant scholarship. Most of the literature on transitions and on citizenship highlights the behavior and evolution of state institutions (and individuals connected to them) as the arena where both democratic transitions and forms of citizenship are created. (2) Within this rather limited framework, both phenomena are top-down constructions, a subset of the history of the state. This perspective leads to what has been called the "thin" conception of citizenship as simply a "status" guaranteed by the state, a set of rights and responsibilities bestowed upon the population. (3)

While the state's role in these processes is certainly important, I would argue that a state-centered approach provides only a partial view of both the transition to democracy and the construction of new forms of citizenship. Instead, the state needs to be placed in a larger political equation that includes the realm of civil society in order to understand the full scope of these processes. (4) In particular, a strong democratic project is inevitably rooted in a partnership between the state and civil society at a specific historical moment. (5)

Likewise, the creation or re-creation of citizenship takes place within these broader parameters. The status bestowed by new sets of rights forms the "passive" axis of citizenship, while the ways individuals come together in civil society, in demanding new rights or in embodying existing ones, form the "active" axis of citizenship. (6) Mediating between the legal context and participation is the discursive dimension of citizenship, which refers to the collective meanings generated through the relationship between laws and actions. (7) Rather than a fixed category, then, citizenship is a dynamic concept, the "outcome of legal, political and symbolic practices". (8) To put it another way, the construction and evolution of democratic citizenship is a fluid process that takes place at the intersection between political, social and cultural history. The result is a "thick" conception of citizenship that incorporates status, collective action and cultural meanings and that links abstract concepts to ordinary lives and everyday practices.

While the process of constructing new forms of citizenship is always multi-layered, gendered markers further complicate and differentiate the "making" of female citizens. On the one hand, the "rights" associated with democratic citizenship are usually conceived of in universalistic terms that ignore the parallel language of difference that marks women. In this way, "special" rights like abortion or birth control can be marginalized as private concerns, not citizen rights. In general terms, the classic rights and responsibilities of citizenship are all located within a narrow version of the political sphere and constrained by a restricted definition of the public interest. Likewise, the classic views of active citizenship focus on participation in formal political activities in which women are less likely than men to take part. Feminist scholars have noted that women are more often found in informal social movements organized around household, neighborhood or human rights issues than in the political parties a nd associations that are recognized as "political" actors in conventional models. (9) The result, as Susan James argues, is that citizenship has excluded all that is traditionally female: "the cluster of activities, values, ways of thinking and ways of doing things which have long been associated with women are all conceived as outside the world of citizenship." (10)

Without denying the public and political terrain of citizenship, it is necessary both to redraw the boundaries of the public and to recognize the interface between public and private. (11) As Yuval-Davis says succinctly, "the mere construction of privacy is public" as well as socially constructed. (12) Following this logic, reproductive rights can be reconstructed as an extension of the civil, political and social rights defined in the mainstream literature as well as "enabling conditions" for women's effective participation in the public. (13) Likewise, women's participation in housewife associations can be re-imagined as part of an expanded notion of the political. In other words, the analysis of the reconstruction of female citizenship requires a critical conception of the categories before the process itself becomes fully visible.

Within this framework of citizenship as process, this article will explore the interplay between women's collective action and the discourse of citizenship surrounding the housewife associations that were formed in the 1960s and 1970s. As subjects in the creation of new citizenship practices, these associations forged new forms of civic participation and offered women flesh-and-blood models of self-organization and collective agency. In a country where fewer than 29% of women (and even fewer married women) were employed outside the home, the potential audience for such a model was broad. (14) At the same time, they contributed to the expansion of civil society under the late Francoist regime, thus helping to prepare the ground for the formal political transition. However, as a discursive category, the housewife-citizen of these associations could not find a place in the transition. While women's "different" roles as mothers, housewives and neighbors provided an acceptable path into civil society under the Fra nco regime, the democratic discourse could not translate these housewives into "equal" housewife-citizens and recognize their subjectivity as actors in the larger transformation. This narrative of the contested re-formation of female citizenship reveals the problematic nature of a category in which difference and equality faced off in a battle without resolution.

Women, the Housewife Associations and the Transition

The Housewives' Associations' role in this contested process began in the mid-1960s when they were founded by groups of middle class, largely urban women. They emerged as part of a process of social, economic and political change that would only later be recognized as the beginnings of "the transition". The economic boom that began in the late 1950s ushered in a new consumer society that transformed the expectations and choices of the consumer at the same time that it drove up prices, creating new consumer anxieties and insecurities in its wake. While the authoritarian regime provided few outlets for pursuing change within the system, and few controls over the expanding capitalist forces, the regime did treat consumption differently. In its early years the regime followed an older pattern of trying to maintain social order through price controls on basic goods and coordinating local market distribution. These policies as well as government commissions dedicated to consumer welfare created a framework in which certain claims could be made in the name of consumer issues. And since women's role as the family's consumer was sanctified by the regime, a discursive space for women to make such claims existed. (15)

The legal space emerged with a new law of associations in 1964, which provided a limited sanction for a new generation of non-governmental organizations. Created as a way of channeling the energies of a society on the move, the government did not intend to promote the creation of independent organizations, but the law created new spaces that the regime could not, in the end, control. The mast famous of the new independent organizations were the Comisiones Obreras, the syndicates infiltrated and empowered by mostly Communist party militants. But the new law also opened the door to a range of other organizations as long as they remained subordinate to the Francoist "Movement", the umbrella organization created in 1937 that substituted for a state-directed political party. Some of the earliest neighborhood organizations, as well as the first housewife, family, and school parents' associations thus emerged out of the regime's own framework. (16)

Many of these associations remained politically committed to the regime, while others evolved into seed beds of opposition, but in both cases they participated in the significant reconstruction of civil society. In helping to explain exactly how such associations contributed to the incipient democratization of society, Iris Marion Young has provided a useful categorization of associational life and the functions it serves. (17) The housewife associations, along with some of the others mentioned above, qualify as both "civic" and "political" associations, as opposed to the inward-looking private associations that focus on the needs of members only. Civic associations are outward-directed, aiming to serve both members and the community, while political associations go further to make "claims about what the social collective ought to do" (p.162).

What makes the activities of these civic and political associations significant is two-fold, she argues. On the first level, efforts of self-organization develop "communicative interaction" that supports identities, expands participatory possibilities and creates networks of solidarity. In other words, they nurture what Birte Siim has called the "horizontal" axis of citizenship that comprises communication among citizens. (18) But when these associations try to influence government policies, they contribute to the democratization process on another level, by strengthening the communication between government and people (the vertical axis of citizenship) and broadening the parameters of public debate. Under an authoritarian regime, this function looks slightly different, since direct attacks on the regime are restricted. However, independent organizations that lobbied for their understanding of the public interest, whether or not they advocated the overthrow of the regime, created alternative centers of debate and decision-making. Whatever their specific political stance, they all contributed to the creation of a more pluralist civil society which, in the long run, undermined the authoritarian master narrative and paved the way for the political transition.

For women, participation in these associations contributed not only to the transition but also to the creation of new practices of female citizenship. Under a regime that sacralized woman's domestic mission, the creation of new channels for public involvement in and communication about issues of common concern was a crucial step towards new collective identities. The fact that women often defined these common concerns in terms of their sanctioned role as housewives should not disguise the innovation. For some women, the first step towards a more public role may have been participation in the regime's own women s organization, the Seccion Femenina, which provided from the outset a framework for collective management of issues related to women, however subordinate it was to the regime's political interests. More research needs to be done on the individual trajectories of women who played leadership positions in the S.E before we can determine its role, not in indoctrinating millions of involuntary participants but in the lives of the women who ran it. (19)

Still, the Seccion Femenina's contribution to a new female public sphere was limited by its status as an official state organization. More important for this argument were the Housewife Associations. While the official Housewife Associations were subject to the oversight of the Secci6n Femenina, many of them had been independently created by groups of women who felt that the needs of housewives demanded a public voice. And while they never challenged the regime, or the official Francoist image of female citizenship, they did mount an independent critique of specific policies that contravened their perceived interests. As a result, the housewife associations functioned according to Young's model as both sites of self-organization and of critical engagement with government policy. The framework offered such potential that anti-francoist women formed their own dissident housewives' associations, serving similar functions from a radically different ideological perspective. The Housewife Associations thus took adv antage of the regime's own differential citizenship, which assigned women particular roles, and used it to launch their own platform in a reviving civil society.

The National Federation of Amas de Casa

The Association of Amas de Casa began, according to their own account, with a group of friends in Madrid, in 1963, who were frustrated with their attempts to get the city government to respond to their complaints. They decided that an association was the best way to get the voice of the ama de casa heard, and to make the amas de casa themselves feel understood and motivated to pursue their collective interests. Forty-nine women met in the house of Ascencion Sedeno, a lawyer and schoolteacher, and drew up statutes which they submitted for approval in December of 1965. Over the next three years, the movement spread to other provinces, promoted by groups similar to those in Madrid, "aware and committed, for the good of the community and to achieve their aspirations." (20) In 1968, they decided to form a national federation and held the first nation-wide conference, with representatives from 17 provincial associations. (21) By 1977, the association claimed 150,000 members in 47 provinces, including 4,000 in Madri d alone. (22) The primary purpose of the organization was to help the (implicitly middle class and urban) housewife cope with the complexities of the new consumer society. On the one hand, this task involved education, and much of its energy was dedicated to creating informed consumers (ie, self-organization). On the other, it required more government attention to protect the consumer (ie, influencing policy). Thus the association lobbied for quality control of products, legislation about false advertising and the creation of state institutions that would monitor consumer issues. Finally, it also insisted that consumers had a right to be consulted on issues that affected them, and thus demanded representation on appropriate government committees. (23)

In fact, the Federation was appointed to represent the consumer on the Fondo de Ordenacion y Regulacion de los Productos Agrarios in 1970 (created in 1968 to regulate agricultural production), and to sit on the newly created Consejo de Comercio Interior y de los Consumidores under the aegis of the Ministerio de Economia y Comercio, (24) as well as on the Junta Superior de Precios in 1972. It also participated in the first National Assembly of Consumers, convoked by the National Federation of Consumers, which was founded in 1969 under the aegis of the Francoist "Movement." The Assembly gathered together a number of state committees and institutions, chambers of commerce, syndicates and the independent consumer organizations to discuss topics from food fraud to prices and consumer policy. While the actual role played by the Federation in these bodies is unclear, even its nominal inclusion represented a formal and public recognition of the links between the private housewife and the national economy as well as a n indication of their attempts to influence state policy.

In any case, the Federation took its role as adviser seriously, submitting periodic reports to the government containing its suggestions for and critiques of consumer policy. (25) The Federation also sponsored four major congresses, or jornadas, over the decade of the 1970s, each of which issued a series of proposals and/or demands related to the housewife consumer, her needs and her role in the larger economy. For example, in 1977, the Jornadas recommended the implementation of consumer education in the schools and through the media.

As this recommendation indicates, the Federation was probably most concerned with the process of consumer education. Local and provincial associations sponsored numerous talks, seminars and courses on a variety of topics, and at least some of them published regular bulletins. A 1981 issue of Trocha (#99), the bulletin of the Madrid association, printed a list of activities sponsored in the first trimester of that year that included courses on naturopathy, on prenatal health and on nutrition and consumer awareness. Information was crucial to the Federation's project because of its liberal theory of market structure. Housewives were at least partly responsible for the crisis of the consumer, an article in Trocha scolded, because they allowed themselves to be manipulated by ads and driven by competition with their neighbors to validate the status of particular brands. (26) In another article in the same issue, readers were reminded once again that their purchasing behavior affected supply and demand, and that th ey should substitute less expensive alternatives for overpriced items, which would reduce demand for them and lower their price. In other words, the association of housewives tried to use information to turn passive housewives into agents of rational consumption.

However, the association also demanded that the government play a role in the consumer crisis, and openly chided it for not stepping up to the plate. The article that criticized housewives for being manipulated by advertising also called on the government to help coordinate supply and demand, especially in agriculture. With administration, production and consumption all rationalized and coordinated, solutions could be found, it concluded. The piece that advised housewives to use substitution also recognized the limits to this strategy. In commenting on the recent increases in public transport, postage, and gas and electric prices, the editorial made the rhetorical point that one couldn't replace letters with smoke signals, or buses with horses.

The bottom line, insisted another hard-hitting editorial, was that the government had to take responsibility. It lambasted the National Institute of Statistics for publishing misleading figures claiming a decrease in the cost of living for 1971, and demanded that the Institute consult the amas de casa, who knew that the cost of living had gone through the roof, not stabilized. When it came to the question of blame, the article acknowledged the common theory that "intermediate" officials had "derailed" policies set by the Ministers and the Government, but refused to let the government off the hook. Even if true, the government should still shoulder responsibility for the mess. The piece ended with a spirited call for the real incorporation of consumers into the decision-making process: we want to be advisers, so our worries and suggestions can be heard and discussed, but never marginalized." Since no one could accuse us of being "political", the author concluded, everyone knows we speak the truth. (27)

The denial of "political" agendas is a standard trope, especially under authoritarian regimes where the word connotes divisive haggling against the interests of the united people. But in 1972 it also meant something more coming from a loyalist women's organization, eager to assert its congruence with the basic gender policy of the regime. The Federation's job was to defend the housewife in her role in the family, to create the conditions for her better management of this job, not to effect broader social or political changes or to move women into the public realm of politics as it was understood. And it was in fact, as the author recognized, this conservative stance that led the government to tolerate the Federation and publicly consult it on matters of policy. The Federation claimed to act within the gender (as well as system of the regime, and the regime responded within these parameters.

Given the avowedly pro-Francoist and apolitical nature of the Association of Housewives, how can it be argued that they contributed, even indirectly, to either the democratic transition itself or the constitution of a democratic female citizenship? On the first point, the Association of Housewives was emblematic of the long term evolution of society under the Franco regime, from the early years when the regime tried to maintain a "totalitarian" control over public discourse, to the later years when this monolingual discourse began to break down. The breakdown occurred partly through channels provided by the regime itself, as in the case of the law of associations, which opened the door to a participatory culture of interest politics. This is not to say that the regime democratized itself, but that it was an often unwitting contributor to processes that slipped out of its control. As is clear from the close monitoring of the Housewife Association from its inception, the regime thought it could still maintain c ontrol over the spreading arteries of associational life, and to some degree it did. At the same time, the Association maintained a critical perspective that took the government to task for its policy choices and carved out an independent collective voice for the ama de casa. Thus, it operated within an assumed framework of multiple voices in an arena of public debate, one of the hallmarks of a thriving civil society. (29)

In addition to contributing to this broader process, the Housewife Association helped to reconstitute female citizenship in subtle ways. Rather than rejecting the Francoist female citizen as retrograde and anachronistic, the Housewife Association tried to modernize her, to provide her with a civic education and create a public space for her to defend her own interests, whether under Franco or a new regime. In other words, it sought to turn the ama de casa into an active participant in her own society. On the other hand, the Association sought to create a new public respect for the ama de casa, "just like any other citizen in a state of law". (30) Both of these goals continued almost unchanged across the major political divide of regime transition, which the Association barely noted in its own historical memory. (31) While the Housewife Federation of 1968 did not envision its task as creating democratic female citizens, many individual parts of its project led down this path. As a result, it has continued to f unction up to the present day, while the Secci6n Femenina, designed for a mono-discursive society, could not survive the transition.

The key to the Housewife Association's re-formulation of the ama de casa's role in society was to draw her out of her isolation. In the 1972 issue of Trocha, an article waxed enthusiastic about the benefits of what it called convivencia, living together with others. (32) Crucial to living together, both within the family and outside, was open dialogue and fraternization with those who shared common interests, like amas de casa. Gone were the days when amas de casa moved in very limited circles and when the image of two women talking evoked assumptions of gossip or tattling on one's neighbor. It was this definition of convivencia, as dialogue, interchange of ideas and clarification of concepts, that should constitute the basis of modem social life, whether between husbands and wives in the family or between housewives in their association. Not only does the article's description evoke Habermas' concept of communicative interaction, but it also breaks down the barrier between public and private by universalizin g the practice of communication across both spheres.

A similar message was still being delivered in 1981 and even in 1990. In the inaugural speech at the luncheon celebrating the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Association in Madrid, the president lauded the new ama de casa, who participated in lectures and courses, who had informed herself about her daily needs and about those not touching her directly, and who was better prepared to defend her interests as a consumer or to dialogue with her family.33 This celebration was an homage to the "organized ama de casa", to those who believed that problems could be better resolved together. In conclusion, the president emphasized that the work that the association was doing in promoting amas de casa was perhaps as important as the securing of her employment, judicial, social and political rights. Thus, the Association's language of civic empowerment meshed seamlessly with the new language of democratic rights that had been enshrined in the Constitution of 1978. (34)

One of the undercurrents of this homage was a defense of the ama de casa against her detractors, especially after the death of the regime that celebrated her as a lynchpin of its social order. Against those who viewed the ama de casa as a retrograde obstacle to modernization, the Association reminded them of the social value of housewives in the regulation of the family economy and the formation of children. While feminists and other progressives sought to eradicate the ama de casa by pulling her into the paid labor force, the Association worked to re-valorize her role in social and political terms as the woman who "governs, administers and cares for the home."

Two proposals in particular speak to this goal. The first, raised at the second national jornada in 1975, was to count amas de casa among the "active" or working sector of the population in the census rather than among the non-employed. The second proposal was to obtain social security for housewives independent of their husbands. This second proposal was raised as early as 1965 when the first Association members met with the Minister of Labor, but it culminated in the drafting of a law written by the Association for presentation in the Cortes in 1979. Despite the support of 500,000 signatures, it never even reached the floor.

Implied in both of these proposals is the attempt to raise the ama de casa's position from the category of private to public interest, to argue, in effect, for her status as an equal citizen. This campaign to enhance the public status of amas de casa, combined with the Association's sustained efforts to increase their public activism, added up to a reconstitution of citizenship practice for its members. And while democracy was not the original goal of this reconstitution, there was enough overlap to provide the foundation for a new democratic ama de casa who could negotiate the political transition.

The Anti-Francoist Associations of Amas de Casa

Most democrats, of course, would not have agreed with this assessment of the Federation, which they considered no more than a stooge for Francoist gender policy. However, groups of anti-Francoist women did try to take advantage of the organizational framework and the opportunity to reach a new audience by infiltrating the organization with the hopes of co-opting it for more subversive ends. Thus, members of the illegal communist-influenced Movimiento Democratico de Mujeres, founded in 1965, joined the provincial association of amas de casa in Madrid in the mid-1960s as a legal cover for their activities. While the MDM women were expelled after a couple of years when they publicly supported democracy in an assembly, they continued to organize mostly lower-middle and working-class women, meeting in bars, schools, homes and churches.

In 1969, the MDM women promoted the formation of two independent, anti-Francoist associations of Amas de Casa, in the working-class barrios of Tetuan and Getafe. A half dozen MDM militants met with fifteen to twenty neighborhood women in each location and applied for legal status under the 1964 law of associations. Three more independent associations followed in 1970, in the neighborhoods of Ventas, Chamartin and Moratalez (35) . In 1972, another organization, the Asociacion Castellana de Amas de Casa y Consumidores, formed to coordinate activities in nineteen other Madrid neighborhoods. At this point, the regime began to get nervous about the spread of associationism, and it responded by refusing to legalize more independent housewife organizations. (36) However, it was too late; the housewife association had become a thriving channel for mobilizing women with a variety of ideological perspectives.

Because they were legal, the six independent associations maintained a certain freedom of movement denied other politically-motivated organizations, such as the ability to make official and public responses and statements through the press, in interviews on radio and even occasionally on television. They also often cooperated with the Neighborhood Associations in organizing demonstrations and boycotts and in issuing manifestos. At the end of 1976, they formed their own umbrella organization, the Federation of Housewife Associations, which in turn became the Federacion de Asociaciones de Mujeres de Madrid in 1980. (37) The president of this regional federation was an MDM militant, Mercedes Comabella, who had been one of the founders of the first independent association in Tetuan. While I have no complete membership figures on these organizations, one newspaper story related that they grew slowly at first (38) and then gained momentum, especially among white collar service workers. (39) This general picture of growth is corroborated by the membership register of the Asociacion Castellana (40):

(end of) 1972  102 members
         1973  146
         1974  292
         1975  571
         1976  1281
         1977  1798
         1978  1944

While the two types of housewife associations shared a common framework, relations between them were, not surprisingly, almost non-existent. When the independent associations attended the First International Congress of Women, sponsored by the Seccion Femenina in Madrid in June 1970, they caused an uproar by presenting radical positions on the emancipation of women, sexual taboos, work and the concept of the family. The official organizers once again expelled the dissidents, and the two types of women's organizations never really shared the same podium again. For the independents, the official organization was no more than an undemocratic mouthpiece for the regime's repressive ideology. For the official organization, the others were troublemakers who threatened its carefully groomed relationship with the regime, which allowed it to obtain results. Thus, in June of 1976, Asuncion Sedeno, the President of the official association, held a press conference to announce her total opposition to boycotting stores or demonstrating in the streets, tactics pursued by other housewife organizations which should not be confused with their own. (41)

Aside from tactics, there were deep ideological divisions between the two organizations. Most obviously, whereas the official association treated the nature of the regime as virtually irrelevant, focusing its energies on critiquing specific policies, the independent associations openly promoted the political transition to democracy. Like the larger neighborhood movement, these associations made the link between democratic rights and specific demands. Thus, in a flyer distributed to the "Housewife of Madrid", the Asociacion Castellana described its recent letter to the Government, criticizing its economic measures that weighed most heavily on workers. Only within a framework of democratic government, with the participation of all citizens in a system legitimated by national consensus, can we begin a campaign of belt-tightening for everyone, asserted the document. (42)

Even beyond the general commitment to democracy, the two types of associations operated under two very different gender frameworks. While the official Federation sought to empower the ama de casa by giving her more information to make rational choices, the other groups sought to dis-empower the larger forces of capitalism that created an adversarial relationship between consumer and producer. More important, instead of teaching the housewife to be a better consumer, the independent associations wanted to teach her a new profession. That is, the goal of these associations was to move its members out of the very identity that brought them together in the first place. Thus, when Mercedes Comabella defined the goal of the new provincial federation as the defense of housewives' interests, she explained that this meant promoting professional formation and the incorporation of women into the workforce. (43) For the antiFrancoist associations, then, democratic citizenship for women required their full integration into the workforce. Partly as a corollary to this principle, the independent associations supported a range of more radical positions on free day care, public kitchens and access to birth control that would free up housewives' time, while they condemned proposals to provide salaries to amas de casa. (44)

While these ideological differences were powerful, there were in fact many common denominators in the housewives' associations' practice of citizenship. Key to both associations' agenda was to encourage women to participate in the world outside their home, to recognize woman's role as a "social being". In one press conference, representatives of the Asociacion Castellana explained that campaigns against high prices were meant to reach women who were enclosed in their homes, with little consciousness of why things happen and accustomed to leaving the problem-solving to men. (45) As stated elsewhere, their association had the goal of "reaching this isolated woman, listening to the radio, watching television and believing everything the advertisements tell her". (46)

Once pulled out of the isolation of her home, both organizations wanted to instill in the housewife a respect and desire for association, for the collective approach to problem solving. What is important, said the President of the Asociacion Castellana, Maria del Carmen Jimenez, is the "active participation of all the members in collaborating in the defense of citizen interests." (47) More broadly, Spain's nine million housewives could contribute to directing the country in this time of change: "the housewife has much to say about the social and economic transformations that the country needs". (48) To do so, they needed to participate on the bodies that made decisions affecting these concerns. (49) Thus, both associations contributed to a new mode of female participation and engagement in the public sphere that would overcome the traditional marginalization of Spain's housewives. This broad agreement on structuring participation created the foundation for a new female citizenship that could traverse ideologi cal boundaries.

The housewife associations agreed on many more particular issues as well. The list of aims submitted by the independent associations to the government included a host of goals common to both, such as the exchange of information, the defense of housewife interests and a focus on the economic problems of the home. (50) They both agreed that the consumer was under siege and uninformed and that families needed help to make ends meet, and they shared their demand for quality control, laws against fraud and channels for complaints. They both fundamentally agreed that the cost of living was too high and that the economic measures taken by the government (whether before or after the death of Franco) were inadequate. (51) And finally, both federations saw a combined role for themselves, on the one hand as independent lobbyists demanding changes from above, (52) and on the other as educators of their members.

The educational activities, comprised of lectures, seminars, campaigns, etc., were designed to "create an atmosphere of interest in the problems of the ama de casa" (53) bath inside and outside the organization. Thus, in May 1974, various independent associations asked the government's permission to mount an informational campaign, through the press, radio, television and advertisements, with lectures, debates and seminars on the themes of "domestic economics", "the aspirations of Madrid neighborhoods", "health and education of children", the "judicial situation of women" and the "interpersonal relationships of housewives". (54) These continued to be popular topics (55), in addition to the need for more daycare centers, which was the subject of another provincial campaign in December, 1977.56 Before the first elections of May 1977, the associations also tried to educate women on the issues and the parties, as well as about the general meaning of elections themselves. (57) While the educational and promotional activities may not always have shared the same content as those sponsored by the official association of housewives (although in many cases they seemed similar), they did share the overall goal of injecting housewives' concerns into public discourse and of giving the housewives themselves the knowledge they needed to join in the fray.

The reception of this effort is not always easy to discern, but one police report on a lecture on children's education organized by the Ventas association noted the attendance of 92 people. After a twenty minute talk, on modern pedagogical norms and the creation of a learning environment in the home, a lively discussion prompted every member of the audience to participate. (58) The conclusions of the I Jornadas del Ama de Casa, which attracted 500 women, noted that more than 100 participated in the debates. An internal report on the symposium reported the passionate and impressive participation of many women in the discussions. Women were most interested in talking about birth control and their desire to pursue goals in the future that they had not been able to achieve as young girls or women. (59) The interest in birth control is confirmed by a police report on the concluding speech of a cycle of talks on "family planning", which quoted the president as saying that "your numerous presence throughout the talk s speaks to their success". (60) These are only small windows into the most difficult question of the movement's impact on ordinary housewives.

In addition to the educational and lobbying activities of the independent housewives' associations, they also got directly involved in providing services in some instances. There were several cases in which associations of amas de casa went beyond lobbying the government to participate in the implementation of policy goals, particularly in the case of the much-needed child care facilities. Most dramatically, the Amas de Casa Castellana acquired property from the city of Madrid in the neighborhood of Legazpi to open a child care center for 95 children. They located the site, supervised the renovations which the city paid for, and secured a subvention from the Ministry of Labor to subsidize the cost of child care. (61) In these instances and others, the housewives' associations were able to move their own priorities to the top of a list of government projects, by providing the kind of high pressure involvement not traditionally pursued by women s groups. Along the way, they made the case that such "female" issu es were important matters of general interest, not private problems.

While the day care center in Legazpi marked a special achievement on the part of the housewife associations, it was part of a continuum of activities and functions that contributed to a new practice of female citizenship. Whether official or independent, both types of housewife associations shared a common mission to bring the isolated housewife into the public sphere as a new housewife/citizen. In addition, they both sought to give her the education and knowledge to forcefully present her case in the sphere of public debate, and to get her interests recognized as issues of common concern. Finally, they both attempted to re-frame these interests as public, not private, with the housewife as the symbol of a nation of consumers. Thus, the housewife associations offered a path for those Spanish women who still claimed this identity, from the Francoist model of womanhood to a mode of citizenship compatible with the emerging democracy. Whether this democratic housewife was a transition figure, as the independent a ssociations theorized, or an unintentional by-product, as was the case with the official associations, the path was the same. Through their practical organizing, facilitated by legal changes in the rights of association, the housewife organizations contributed to the re-construction of female citizenship during the transition.

The Housewife as Discursive Category

While this contribution was important, the behavior and actions of a minority of women are not enough to transform the meaning of female citizenship in the political culture at large. To have this broader effect, the practice "on the ground" must link up with a public discourse that identifies and gives meaning to new political categories, like the democratic citizen housewife. A perusal of the transition press, between 1975 and 1979, reveals that the groundwork laid by housewife organizations from the mid-1960s was not drawn into the narrative of political change. In the political discourse of the transition, the ama de casa continued to symbolize a traditional or backward Spain. Women were clearly viewed as more saturated with the values and beliefs of the Franco regime because of their particular rootedness in the private sphere and because of the association of the private with Francoism. Thus, the "ama de casa" emerges in the discourse as much more than an occupational category; she was the emblem of an entire way of life. For the right, women embodied the essential bedrock of the nation, while for the left, they had to be "modernized" before the nation could move forward. Both sides, however, agreed on the image itself. Through this lens, it was difficult to frame the housewife associations in a new light, to place them in the new Spain as opposed to the old.

The traditionalist image appeared regularly in the political press, in both off-hand and more deliberate uses. (62) In the progressive press, this middle-class woman symbolized the remnants of Francoism, embodied in the person of Franco's widow, Carmen Polo, but also in the nameless women in black pictured at a mass for the assassinated Carrero Blanco (Franco's chosen successor, assassinated in 1973), or identified in stories about Francoist gatherings or the Alianza Popular (the right-wing party linked with Francoist supporters). One film review describes a character in the film who epitomized these women: a woman of daily rosaries, who is dedicated exclusively to her husband and children, and, as Alianza Popular desires, is not only decent but appears to be." (63)

Columnist Francisco Umbral made this "decent" woman the subject of one of his pointed political commentaries. In his piece entitled "the Senoras Return", he employed the prim and prudish senora as a metaphor for censorship under the old regime, the woman who, after seeing an "indecent" movie, would call up the newspaper and complain that "her husband had not received seven medals at [the Civil War battle of] Brunete for this." He made the metaphorical leap by concluding: "what is the gran derecha of Fraga and Torcuato but a gran senora who wants to return?" (EP, Sept. 22, 1976) In this metaphor, the Right was gendered female to demonstrate its archaic connections to the past. This same senora was highlighted among the participants mourning the anniversary of Franco's death, who were described as "principally uniformed youths with arm bands in the national colors, men and women--many women, older, from 50-60 years, middle classes, and many groups from the provinces." Women's gender was considered sufficiently explanatory of their presence, while men were subsumed under other categories (middle class, provincials, youths with arm bands).

In more sociological terms, journalists and scholars highlighted women's traditionalism as one of the significant results of the new survey data that sought to uncover Spaniards' political attitudes after forty years of authoritarianism and censorship. In all of the early opinion polls, women and democracy fell on opposite sides of the balance sheet. Thus, when Luis Solana posed the rhetorical question of who wanted democracy in Spain, women were conspicuously absent from his categories of workers, professionals, intellectuals, Europe and the Monarchy. (Cambio 16, January 19, 1976)

Supporting such statements were analyses like El Pais' evaluation of a 1975 survey of attitudes towards reform. The survey identified the majority of women as being more resistant to change, linked with tradition and apolitical. (EP, June 23, 1976) A follow-up article (June 30, 1976) with the headline "Women and Old People, More Conservative", emphasized women's lack of preparation for citizenship, noting that women and the less educated had fewer political opinions, that amas de casa were less likely to vote, and favored reform over rupture, and that women and the elderly were more opposed to the Communist party (which was still illegal in 1976). Interestingly, the signifiers "women" and "ama de casa" were used more or less interchangeably. Another survey identified three groups with the highest level of political ignorance (and presumably the lowest level of citizenship readiness): those over 45, the poorest, and married women. (C16, May 8,1977) While presumably the other categories comprised both sexes, on ce again gender and marital status were considered less significant markers for men's opinions than was their age, their income or their residence.

Perhaps the most significant expression of the equation between housewives and conservatism was an off-hand remark in a review of a concert featuring the renowned flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and the American rock star Santana, which was celebrated as an event that attracted a crowd of all types, from "mothers of families to the most conspicuous elements of the catalan progressives." (El Pais, Aug. 21, 1977) The way the remark was constructed places the social category of "mother" on an equal (and antagonistic) footing with the political category "progressive".

While for progressives, the ama de casa was an anchor dragging down the new Spain, for conservatives, she was both the embodiment of womanhood and a hopeful connection with the old Spain. This was illustrated in a nostalgic essay in ABC by the prominent right-wing writer Jose Maria Peman (May 20, 1976), who praised the traditional values of the ama de casa as essential to weathering the political changes under way. His narrative centered on a traditionalist city councilman in Madrid, who comes home depressed after the council votes to stop its official participation in the Easter Week religious processions. When he despondently tells his wife she doesn't need to air out his special suit this year, she, "discreet like the perfect wife of Fray Leon, was silent." (64) But as they sat down to lunch, she said, "if I hem the pants and the sleeves, I think I can make a suit for Pedrito, who is starting school this year." With this subtle effort to shape the old into something new, the councilman (and by extension Pe man) recovers his sense of security and hope for the future. While the world outside was turning upside down, the ama de casa was so buried in the private sphere that she was impervious to the buffeting winds of change.

The ultimate role model of the ama de casa was the Queen herself. Coverage of the King and the royal family occupied ample space in the conservative, monarchist ABC. As a result, Sophia was by far the most featured woman in the political pages of the newspaper. Despite her very public presence, however, Sophia's image fit the stereotype of the traditional wife and mother. As such, she eschewed politics, took care of her children, supported her husband and engaged in charitable activities. (65) Photos showed her with her children, at charitable functions and on family vacations, and stories emphasized her womanly virtues. Thus, during the royal couple's first visit to the US, she declined to answer any political questions, avowing her lack of knowledge, and talked only of the education of her children and her relationship to her husband. (June 3,1976) At a military ceremony in which she had to present the national flag, the story described how she spoke as a "Spanish mother" and claimed to be speaking for all Spanish women. (June 15,1978) In an article written to commemorate the third anniversary of Juan Carlos' reign, one commentator applauded Sophia as a "suitable helpmate" for her husband in the difficult task ahead. He went on to note that a man's choice of wife was the most important prerequisite to his success, even when this man is king. (December 7,1978)

The extolling of Sophia's wifely virtues in the conservative press is particularly significant given that sector's broader advocacy of the Monarchy as the key to Spain's political future. ABC hammered home the point that the young king and his family were the face of the new Spain, the embodiment of modernity, rather than the archaic remnant of traditional Spain. (66) This imagery was employed to defend the institution of the monarchy from republicans who linked it to the old Spain, but the argument also revealed hidden gender assumptions. Thus, in the conservative discourse, there was no contradiction between a modernized monarchy and the Queen as a traditional, though royal, ama de casa. In conservative discourse, as in the progressive, the ama de casa remained a point of reference with the past, not a path to the future.

Given this frame of reference, it is no surprise that the press had trouble connecting the housewife organizations to the broader transformations under way. While notices of their activities do appear, they are assigned no meaning within the transition narrative. There are no explicit discussions about female citizenship and housewives, at a time when a burgeoning "citizen movement" provoked debates over the potential of grass-roots direct democracy. The fact that women were more likely to get involved in politics at this level was never broached, and in actuality the citizen movement was largely gendered masculine, particularly by equating citizens and workers. For example, sociologist Jordi Borja explained that the citizen movement organized workers in another dimension of their social life. (67) Another commentator explained the difficulty in organizing the "average citizen" because he came home late and tired after working all day. (68) To define the average citizen as a worker excluded the 70% of Spanish women who were not in the paid work force.

Indeed, when women were mentioned at all in general discussions of the citizen movement, it was usually to comment on their absence. Even two of the prominent female leaders in the movement spoke directly to the problems of incorporating women into it. As Rosario Perez Canto explained, the relationship between women and the citizen movement was a mix of passivity and impossibility, given the domestic responsibilities that prevented them from having time to dedicate to the associations. (EP, May 11,1976) Another activist, Cristina Sobrino, who was the vice president of the Federation of Neighborhood Associations, admitted that women were a minority presence in the movement and in its leadership. She blamed the shortage on the machismo of Spanish society, but also on the isolation and low level of civic consciousness among the "amas de casa" of the barrios. In her opinion, those women who did join usually came through their concern with a specific problem, and later gained a citizenship consciousness. (EP, Sept ember 28,1977)

An implicit epistemological division between "neighborhood" and "housewife" associations contributed to women's perceived marginalization in the "citizen movement and its masculine gender. The official housewife associations were virtually ignored altogether, judged by their political association with the old regime, not their functions. (69) But even the independent associations resided in some special category on the fringe of the "citizen movement". For example, in one article explaining the distinctions between housewife federations, the author identified the independent movement as "tactically linked" with the citizen movement. (70) Given a similar agenda and co-sponsorship of many activities, the location of such boundaries seems arbitrary. Instead of being portrayed as the women s branch of the citizen movement, they appear as interest-group lobbyists for private consumer issues. While the reasons for this distinction were never articulated by reporters and commentators, presumably writers made the ass ociation between housewives and private interests and between worker/citizens and the public good. (71) As a result, two organizations with closely allied sets of goals and activities appeared on opposite sides of the public/private divide.

When the independent Housewives' Associations appeared, then, it was mainly as the voice of the average housewife annoyed with her grocery bill. Thus, in a piece entitled, "Housewives against the increase in prices", a representative of the Housewives' Association of Tetuan opined that increases in coffee and school fees seemed to be part of a trend. Another piece, "Housewives criticize the economic measures of the Government", describes a letter of complaint from one of the Federations, and several other stories chronicle objections raised against economic policies that failed to aid impoverished families. (72) The paradox of their position in the press discourse on the economic crisis is that, while the Housewife Associations were called on to speak for the average "ama de casa", they were treated as no more than a window into the private realm of many individual housewives. Once again, one can perceive the underlying framework of public and private, with the automatic links between housewives and the priva te sphere that served to depoliticize the Housewives' Associations' demands and activities. As further evidence, the associations were rarely quoted on any issue other than basic market basket concerns.

Beyond this story of disgruntled housewives, there was no meta-narrative of interpretation. The fact that these and other women displayed the energy and initiative to overcome the "passivity" and "isolation" of their domestic roles never merited commentary. Or, conversely, it never provoked the speculation that perhaps the "amas de casa" were not so passive and isolated after all. Women's activism in these associations was narrated rather than analyzed, with no attempt made to connect them to the broader social and political transformations under way. Despite the new legitimation and politicization of consumer movements, which opened up the possibility of an enhanced participatory model of citizenship, the gender implications of such a transformation were never explored. What came across, then, was an old story, a narrative of tradition, not transition. It was this association with the past rather than the future that discursively linked the otherwise incompatible working-class "amas de casa" protesting bread prices with the black-draped "amas de casa" at Franco's funeral. Both were trapped in a static vision of female identity that clashed with the dynamic practice of these associations in formulating new modes of citizen participation for women.

Instead of acknowledging these new forms of female politics, news reports, even in the democratic press, still linked women to politics, and thus citizenship, through their family connections, not through their own actions. That is, they implicitly followed the differential model of citizenship embraced by the Franco regime. While articles on housewife associations were buried in the "society" section, when women appeared in the "political" news, it was often simply by virtue of their spousal relationship to a prominent male political figure. In these stories or photos, women's right to appear in a political story resided solely in their relationship, rather than in some independent action on their part. For example, when a woman appeared on the front page, it was often as a widow, as when the wife of the slain president of the Basque Diputacion was pictured with the President of the Cortes on October 6, 1976. In another case, one of Cambio 16's rare "political" photos of women during this period highlighted the return to Spain of the exiled widow of a Communist leader executed by the Franco regime in 1963. On her arrival in Madrid, she was greeted by a large contingent of communists shouting her husband's name, and vowing that his death was not in vain. (Sept.27, 1976)

The wife of the militant or the guerilla was a standard figure, as in the reports on Communist leader Santiago Carrillo's return from exile with his family. The Cambio story described them with a term coined by his wife, Carmen, who said they were a "communist family". (November 1, 1976) El Pais ran a full interview with Carmen, with a front page headline: "Carrillo's wife talks about their exile". (October 21, 1976) While Carmen was herself a member of the PCE, what the interviewer wanted to know was how tough it was being the wife of a PCE leader, and how she raised her boys to be Spanish while in exile, and if she bought her husband's clothes. While Carmen expressed her wish not to be simply a consort the story constructed her as precisely that.

Another article on "consorts" featured photos of three women related to the new Ministers appointed in the recent Cabinet. As the item noted coyly, "the change of ministers brought a change in female ministers (ministras)". The ironic use of the same term assigned to the men holding office and the women related to them implies the inherent absurdity of actual female ministers. The women were identified as "illustrious ladies", but no information about them was provided other than the particular attractiveness of the wife of the Finance Minister, with her long brown tresses (C16, January 5, 1976). The collective message of these images seemed to be that women are politically significant only through their husbands, which in turn reinforces the idea that female citizenship is a passive category, constructed through her private role in the family.

By itself, the observation that women were linked to the nation through the family is not remarkable or particularly Spanish. But this linkage did cause special problems for framing female citizenship because of the retrograde identity of the ama de casa in democratic political discourse. The assumption that the housewife--ie, the woman in her family--was particularly saturated with Francoism, linked women to the old undemocratic regime. And yet, even the democratic press found it difficult to escape from the familial framework that imprisoned women in this role. The result was a double bind: a framework in which women's access to citizenship came through the family and a deeply-rooted image of women in the family as incapable of (democratic) citizenship. For the many Spanish women who fell into the category of "ama de casa.", this discursive paradox left little room for reconstituting their public identities.

In contrast, the housewife associations constructed precisely such a space where housewives could make the transition from the old regime to the new. For the women who participated, the associations pointed towards a new collective identity that could reconcile democratic citizen and housewife. At the same time, the associations contributed to preparing the ground for the transition, by helping to revive a civic culture that revolved around multiple interests competing in the public sphere. And yet, when the formal transition got underway soon after the death of Franco, these associations entered, to a certain extent, a conceptual vacuum. Without attention "framed" around their activities, they were not incorporated as subjects into the emerging democratic political culture. In historical terms, this invisibility has denied them a role in the transition process. But equally important, the path they defined as groups of individuals never acquired the symbolic legitimation that would generalize their actions an d identify them as new citizenship practices. Instead of a clear path to a democratic citizenship for the millions of Spanish women caught up in the transition, there were only contradictions and confusing messages.

What this multi-layered analysis of citizenship and the transition reveals is a complex story that juxtaposes a narrative of subjectivity and empowerment with one of exclusion and invisibility. It helps us to understand how women could both take part and be excluded at the same time, how they both constituted themselves as subjects and suffered as objects of gendered power relations. It demonstrates that "active" citizenship only carries meaning within an accepted discursive framework, while it reminds us that "passive" citizenship can be transformed through action. With this set of contradictions, we begin to see the complex reality beneath the legal transition in women's citizenship, which moved from the openly differential model of the Francoist regime to the equality-based model of the Constitution of 1978. Rather than a simple change in status, the reconstruction of female citizenship during the transition was a dynamic and contradictory process which was not resolved by the Constitution.

At the heart of this unresolved process was the conundrum of equality and difference that haunts the western political tradition. For the housewife associations, the "difference" celebrated by the Franco regime allowed women to begin mobilizing in the first place and provided the legitimation for such action in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But this housewife/citizen clashed with the emerging "equality" discourse of the transition, which simply dismissed the housewife and her special interests as a relic of the old model and an unfit subject for democratic citizenship. Thus, the difference/equality paradox created a binary opposition between practices of female citizenship that could not recognize the more subtle transition from private housewife to public activist that the housewife associations represented. Once again, at the inauguration of a new democratic regime, female citizenship emerged as a problematic, not a "natural", category.

Department of History

La Jolla, CA 92093-0104

ENDNOTES

(1.) The Francoist regime, like other traditionalist authoritarian regimes of the 20th century, espoused a return to the domestic ideology of "separate spheres" and a patriarchal ordering of society. This ideology was propagated both by the regime's cultural ally, the Catholic Church, and by the official women's movement, the Seccion Femenina, which conscripted women into domestic "tours of duty", and taught the gospel of domesticity. In legal terms, the majority of women up to 1975 were still legal dependents of their husbands and fathers, and could not sign a legal contract, make major purchases or apply for a job without permission. In the Civil Code, the status of married women equaled that of the mentally incapacitated. The situation was more complicated in certain regions, like Catalonia, which had its own family law, not entirely supplanted by the Franco regime. On francoist gender ideology, see Mary Nash, "Pronatalism and Motherhood in Franco's Spain," in Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the R ise of the European Welfare States, 1880s-1950s, edited by Gisela Bock and Pat Thane (London, 1991), and Aurora Morcillo, True Catholic Womanhood: Gender Ideology in Franco's Spain (DeKalb, IL, 2000).

(2.) For a more extended critique of the scholarship of the transition, see Pamela Radcliff, "Imagining Female Citizenship in the New Spain: Gendering the Democratic Transition, 1975-78," Gender and History, v15(5) (November 2001).

(3.) For critiques of the status-based conception of citizenship, see Margaret Somers, "Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere: Law, Community and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy," American Sociological Review v58, (October, 1993); Kathleen Canning and Sonia Rose, "Gender, Citizenship and Subjectivity: Some Historical and Theoretical Considerations," Gender and History v15(5), (November 2001); and David Held, "Between State and Civil Society: Citizenship," in Citizenship, edited by Geoff Andrews (London, 1991). The distinction between "thin" and "thick" citizenship is made in Will Kymlicka and Wayne Norman, "Return of the Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory," Ethics 104 (January, 1994,): 353.

(4.) There is an ongoing debate about the parameters of civil society, which is nor central to my argument in this context. In general terms, the concept of "civil society" has been increasingly employed in models of democratic transitions since the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. I follow John Ehrenberg's "narrow" definition of civil society as the social relationships and structures that lie between the market and the state. Civil Society: The Critical History of an Idea (N.Y., 1999).

(5.) Iris Marion Young makes this general point about the interdependence of state and civil society in the democratization process in Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford, 2000), p. 156.

(6.) The civic republican intellectual tradition emphasizes active citizenship but neglects the "enabling rights" that allow access to participation and employs a narrow vision of the public good. Ruth Lister argues for a linkage between the status-based and participation-based ideals of citizenship in "Citizenship: Towards a Feminist Synthesis," Feminist Review 57: (Autumn 1997).

(7.) As Lauren Berlant puts it, "Practices of citizenship involve both the public sphere narratives and concrete experiences of quotidian life ... Yet the rhetoric of citizenship does provide important definitional frames for the ways people see themselves as public, when they do." The Queen of America Goes to Washington City (Durham, N.C., 1997), p. 10.

(8.) Somers, "Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere: Law, Community and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy," p. 589.

(9.) This approach has been particularly fruitful in Latin America, where social movements were very prominent in several democratic transitions. See The Women's Movement in Latin America: Feminism and the Transition to Democracy, edited by Jane Jacquette (London, 1989), and Women and Democracy: Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe edited by Jane Jacquette and Sharon Wolchik (Baltimore, 1998).

(10.) "The Good-Enough Citizen: Female Citizenship and Independence," in Beyond Equality and Difference, edited by Gisela Bock and Susan James (London, 1992).

(11.) Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives (New York, 1997), p. 28. Not all feminist scholars take this position. Some argue that women need to be better equipped for involvement in the public-as-defined, and others propose a women's citizenship of the private, based on an ethic of maternal care. See Chantal Mouffe, "Feminism, Citizenship and Radical Democratic Politics," for a discussion of these positions. In Feminists Theorize the Political, edited by Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott (New York, 1992).

(12.) Nira Yuval-Davis, "Women as Citizens," in Women and Citizenship in Europe: Borders, Rights and Duties, edited by Anna Ward, Jeanne Gregory and Nira Yuval-Davis (London, 1992), p. 14.

(13.) Ursula Vogel, "Is Citizenship Gender-Specific?," in Frontiers of Citizenship, edited by Ursula Vogel and Michael Moran (London, 1991), p. 59.

(14.) This figure is from 1977, up from 16% in 1950. See Maria Pilar Alcobendas, Employment of Women in Spain (Luxembourg, 1984) for a breakdown by sector.

(15.) Aurora Morcillo makes the argument that women's consumer identity is increasingly emphasized as the country underwent a transition to a free market economy, and women's consumer spending becomes as important as her reproductive capacity to the nation's prosperity. See chapter three of True Catholic Womanhood.

(16.) Pere Sola, who has written extensively on associational life in Spain in the 20th century, has argued that the law of association had little liberalizing impact, and that it was intended to control, not to expand association. While I do not disagree about the regime's intent, I argue that the fact that the regime lost control of the process it set in motion is the crucial point. (Paper presented at UCSD, April 2001, "Associations in 20th Century Spain"). As Margaret Somers puts it, laws can be transformed from instruments of the state or elite control into popular citizenship rights, depending on the relational setting. "Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere," p. 603.

(17.) Iris Marion Young, inclusion and Democracy, chapter five.

(18.) Gender and Citizenship: Politics and Agency in France, Britain and Denmark (Cambridge, 2000), p. 4. Both Sum and Young emphasize the Habermasian concept of communicative interaction.

(19.) Although not written from the perspective of citizenship, Victoria Enders' article, "Problematic Portraits: The Ambiguous Historical Role of the Seccion Femenina of the Falange," in Constructing Spanish Womanhood: Female Identity in Modern Spain, edited by Victoria Enders and Pamela Radcliff (Albany, NY, 1999), begins to raise some of these questions.

(20.) This account comes from the 20 Aniversario, Federacion Espanola de Asociacion de Amas de Casa, Consumidores y Usuarios, published in 1988 by the Federation.

(21.) While I have no national membership figures for this early period, some of the provincial associations sent lists of founding members, which probably represent the range of initial participation: Lugo began with 31 members, Alava with 19 and Alicante with 100 in 1967; in 1968 Palencia had 75, and in 1969 Santiago de Compostela had 135 and La Coruna had 403. The correspondence between the new federation and the provincial associations (from this foundational period only) are contained in the Ministerio de Cultura: Direccion General de Desarollo Comunitario, Subdireccion General de la Familia archives at the Archivo de la Administracion, in Alcala de Henares.

(22.) The Madrid figure appeared in an El Pais story, September 30, 1976, and the national figures in an October 27, 1977 article.

(23.) All of these are self-stated goals, as outlined in the 1988 anniversary bulletin of the Federation.

(24.) Its mission was to "assume the tutelage and defense of consumer interests", and it was composed of representatives from local governments, syndicates, public administrators, consumer organizations and chambers of commerce. El asociacionismo de los consumidores. Perspectivas de futuro, Federacion Espanola de Asociaciones de Amas de Casa, Fareso, Madrid, 1989.

(25.) For example, in "Politica de Precios," the author notes that the association sent a report in January 1972 to the Government, warning it of economic calamity if price increases were not curbed. Trocha, #4, 1972 (Bulletin of the Madrid Association). I have only been able to locate two issues of this bulletin, #4, and #99, from 1981.

(26.) #99, "Consumo."

(27.) #4, 1972, "Politica de Precios," by Josefina Trillo.

(28.) The ideological perspective emerged clearly on the cover of the 1972 issue of Trocha (#4), which featured a photo of Franco's grandaughter's wedding, with congratulations to Spain's newest ama de casa. The article took the opportunity to praise the brilliant scion of the family, who led the nation through the national crusade of the Civil War followed by the miracle of 33 years of peace

(29.) On the more general argument about the links between the revival of civil society and the democratic transition in Spain, see Victor Perez Diaz, The Return of Civil Society: The Emergence of Democratic Spain (Cambridge, MA, 1993).

(30.) Trocha, #99, 1981, from the President's address at the 15th Anniversary celebration.

(31.) In the 20th anniversary bulletin of the national federation (1988), the change of regime is never mentioned as a significant phenomenon that affected the history of the organization. It is only mentioned as a "political and economic crisis" that delayed government attention to the problematic of the ama de casa. The message seems to be that there was really no rupture when it came to consumer rights and the need to defend them.

(32.) #4, "Charlas en la Camilla."

(33.) Trocha, #99, 1981.

(34.) The Constitution explicitly proclaimed a set of economic, political, civil and social rights that applied to both men and women. Crucial were Article 14, which established gender equality before the law and article 32 on equality within the family. For the exact text of these articles, see Codigo de la mujer, by Carmen Pujol Algans (Madrid, 11992), p. 30 & 35.

(35.) The Ventas association was registered on October 6, 1970 in the National Register of Associations, where its file is archived.

(36.) This narrative is contained in Espanolas a la Transicion: De excluidas a protagonistas (1973-1982), coordinated by the Asociacion "Mujeres en la Transicion Democratica" (Madrid, 1999), p. 30, 40-41.

(37.) Espanolas a la Transicion, p. 41-42. There was yet another umbrella housewife association formed in October of 1976, the Coordinadora Provincial de Amas de Casa, which the older associations refused to join. Its origins and ideological provenance are unclear, although an El Pais story described the Coordinadora as comprised of the most radical women, closely tied to the labor movement. September 30, 1976.

(38.) An example of early organizing may be a meeting held in a parish-owned locale in Getafe, December 6, 1973, with two members of the board of the Association of Amas de Casa of Getafe, and 25 other women attending. The members were distributing a flyer on how workers were paying for economic growth while owners profited. They were surprised by police, who entered when they noticed various women going in to the building. Although the organization was legal, it had not secured permission for the meeting. Registro Nacional, Asoc. Getafe.

(39.) El Pais, September 30, 1976.

(40.) The register is held by the Fundacion CIFFE, a feminist archive. I calculated membership figures by subtracting those who left the organization in a given year. Information on professions in the register is difficult to interpret. Few members have professions listed, and most of these do fall in the category of white collar service workers when they are not listed as amas de casa, but most often the box for profession is simply left blank. Thus, it is difficult to tell whether this means that all other members wore housewives or whether the information was simply not recorded.

(41.) El Pais, June 3, 1976.

(42.) Flyer, October 30, 1976. CIFFE archives.

(43.) On the occasion of the public presentation of the new federation. Reported in Diario 16, January 16, 1977.

(44.) Conclusions from the Primeras Jornadas del Ama de Casa, March 1977: point "h".

(45.) El Pais, "Segun las asociaciones de Amas de Casa," June 8, 1976.

(46.) Results of International Symposium for the defense of the consumer, October- November 1976.

(47.) Letter to "Public Opinion," February 10, 1976, from the Asociacion Castellana.

(48.) El Pais, June 4, 1976, "Las Asociaciones de Amas de Casa." Quote from the opening of their minimum program.

(49.) Cuadernos, "Las Amas de Casa de Castilla," March 27, 1976. El Pais also printed a notice from the Provincial association that proposed creation of a commission of all interested parties, including amas de casa, to control and provide information about the evolution of prices. (August 18, 1977) On October 27, 1977, the Federacion Castellana requested a meeting with the President, Adolfo Suarez, to discuss measures contained in the Pact of Moncloa. In the same issue, the official housewife association asserted that Suarez should have consulted amas de casa before arriving at the Pact.

(50.) Contained in file for Asociacion de Amas de Casa of Ventas, in Registro Nacional.

(51.) El Pais printed a notice of their disapproval of the Moncloa reforms (July 19, 1977), which didn't help families' buying power. On November 2, 1976, it printed a piece entitled "Amas de Casa criticize the economic measures of the government," that had done nothing to stop a 20% increase in the cost of living.

(52.) Many of their communiques were directed to the President of the Government, as were two dated September 21, 1973 and May 1974, both demanding a broader freezing of prices and an increase in salaries as ways to confront the rising cost of living. Fundacion CIFFE archives.

(53.) Aim number six in the Statutes of the Amas de Casa of Ventas.

(54.) May 16, 1974, police informer. Blanket permission was denied, and they were forced to seek permission for each event. Registro Nacional, Asoc. Ventas.

(55.) Meeting topics are included in the files for the Associations of Getafe and Ventas, Registro Nacional.

(56.) Called by the Asociacion Castellana, members were going to distribute unsigned postcards directed to President Suarez in commercial centers and workplaces. El Pais, December 18, 1977.

(57.) Two such notices were found in CIFFE archives: in the March bulletin of the Ventas association and in an undated invitation from the association of Chamartin. See also the conclusions from the I Jornada de Amas de Casa, held in March, 1977. "The future elections have an exceptional importance ... And women ought to pay attention so that the new Constitution takes into account our interests and rights. Thus, it is important that amas de casa participate in the elections, trying to educate themselves as much as possible so as not to be manipulated by propaganda."

(58.) November 14, 1974, held in the Centro of the Association of Vecinos of the Barrio Concepcion. Registro Nacional, Asoc. Ventas.

(59.) Published in Boletin Informativo, #4, Asociacion de Amas de Hogar, Ventas, March 1977.

(60.) May 19, 1976. Cycle planned in conjunction with the Neighborhood Association of the Barrio de Concepcion. Registro Nacional, Asoc. Ventas.

(61.) El Pais, June 19, 1976, November 5, 1977.

(62.) This analysis is based on a close reading of two of the major democratic news organs of the transition, El Pais, a daily paper, and Cambio 16, a weekly newsmagazine.

(63.) Cambio 16, July 3, 1977.

(64.) A reference to the classic text of traditional womanhood, La perfecta casada, written by Fray Luis de Leon in 1583, but reprinted in the 1940s and 1950s as part of the Franco regime's official support of domesticity.

(65.) In an interesting contrast, El Pais reprinted an article about Sophia in the Washington Star, on the occasion of the monarchs' visit to the U.S. (August 10, 1976) This article compared her to Isabella la Catolica, who was also at the helm of the country during momentous changes, and focused on her knowledge, in particular her interest in comparative religions. El Pais did not comment on the article, and in general included very little about the royal family in its pages.

(66.) See, for example, its coverage of the monarchs' visit to the U.S., June 3 & 10, 1976, or to France, November 4, 1976.

(67.) El Pais, December 19, 1976.

(68.) El Pais, November 27, 1977.

(69.) One article in the progressive Cuadernos para el dialogo dismissed the association as "anachronistic and anecdotal" (#102, March 1972).

(70.) El Pais, September 30, 1976.

(71.) The main chronicler of the citizen movement, Manuel Castells, uses the same boundaries by arguing that the Housewives' Association diverted women from participating in the citizen movement. His judgment seems to rest on the presumed leadership of "militant communist women," but such leaders dominated the neighborhood organizations as well. "The Making of an Urban Social Movement," in The City and the Grassroots (Berkeley, 1983), p. 271.

(72.) El Pais, 11/2/76, 7/19, 2/13, 10/27, 1977.