Women in the Federación Anarquista Ibérica were often only addressed because of what they appeared to be ónAnarquistaIbéable to offer male FAI leadership in terms of attracting adept fighters and politicians.
The FAI as a militant anarcho-syndicalist organization came into existence prior to the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera because of differing views on government engagement, but its formalization as an organization only occurred in 1927 during a clandestine meeting which saw García Oliver chosen as their initial leader.
Despite the more liberal policies of the Second Republic, male anarchists generally opposed women's groups and women's involvement, seeing it as a threat to their own status. Men in the FAI were vehemently opposed to the creation of Mujeres Libres, a women's only anarchist organization created in response to female exclusion from the broader anarchist movement.
The Spanish Civil War saw a rise in status for the FAI among anarchist organizations. The FAI attracted milicianas (English: Militawomen) from within its ranks. It also saw one of its female members, Federica Montseny, serving as the Minister to Health in the Republican government. After the war, many former members would look back fondly at the utopian aspects of women's liberation supported by the FAI during the Second Republic and the Civil War. Many of them had to do so though from exile.
Prelude to the Second Republic (1800–1922)
Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), a militant anarcho-syndicalist organization, started their ideological split from the more labor based Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) shortly before the start the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. The initial group believed the move towards being a trade union involved too much need for support among from Spanish institutions to work towards their ideals. The drift started in the period between 1920 and 1922, and intensified following the assassination of Salvador Seguí in March 1923. FAI's supporters believed CNT's anarcho-syndicalists goals could not be met by allying themselves with members of the left.
Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923–1930) FAI and CNT's official rift came in 1927 during a clandestine meeting in 1927 in Valencia which saw the group's formal creation, with García Oliver chosen as their initial leader. Federica Montseny, only 22 years old at the time, was one of the only women who attended the meeting, and would go on to be one of the most visible faces of women in FAI. It would soon be positioned as the most important anarchist organization in the country. In contrast to the dominant machismo of the period found in organizations like the CNT, the FAI was radical in their support of free women. Their official positions included supporting the distribution of birth control and not condemning women for having sexual relations. In the 1920s, this group of anarchists viewed women having fewer children, increased sex education and the elimination of prostitution as positions that would provide resistance to the institutions and ideologies they opposed, including capitalism, religion and the military. These changes would also emancipate women, by defining them around a task other than reproduction.
Second Spanish Republic (1931–1937) On the whole, the anarchist movement's male leadership engaged in deliberate exclusion of women, discouraging them from seeking leadership positions in these organizations. With few exceptions, women were effectively locked out of the two largest and most important anarchist organizations in Spain, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica. Women found it difficult to join the organization, and even more difficult to get leadership positions. Despite these obstacles, Federica Montseny had risen to become a member of FAI leadership by 1936. From her position, she advocated avoiding armed conflict with fascists. This view would contribute to her later being named Minister of Health in the Government of the Second Republic.