Women on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War

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Women on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War were part of the Republican faction in the conflict, who was involved both on the home front and on the battlefield.

The birth of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 saw the rights of women expand, including the granting of the right to vote. It represented a changing cultural and political landscape in which women's political organizations could flourish for the first time. It failed to empower women completely, as they were often locked out of governance roles and positions in political organizations.

The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936, and would pit the Nationalist forces of the right against the Republican forces of the Popular Front government. On the Republican side, women were known to mobilize in support by leaving the home and engaging in activities less associated with the domestic sphere. It was in this climate that a number of important women's organizations were created or flourished. In some cases, it led to women gaining leadership of a kind they had not achieved before, such as inside militias. It did not inspire unification among women inside the Popular Front itself as many divisions existed, eventually leading to leftist-organized internal purges with Popular Front parties turning on each other.

The end of the war and the start of the Francoism saw a return for women to the traditional gender roles of Catholic Spain. It saw ostracization and imprisonment of women who fought for the Republican side. It saw many women sent to overcrowded prisons, where the children born there faced high rates of death. Many other women went into exile. The legacy of Republican women has largely been ignored. This stems from sexism, propaganda that said they were deviants, and a lack of primary sources.