Women Educators in the Primorriverist Dictatorship: New Approaches and Sources for Research

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyse the relationship between female educators and Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, focusing the framework of study on the complexity of this period and the multiple professional and personal experiences they lived through. For this purpose, we have made use of sources that have enabled us to learn about the scope of the sanctions against them, their reactions, their pacts with the regime and the approach to their subjectivities. Taking feminist theory and historiography on the period as a starting point, we have analysed the sources and interpreted, on the basis of concepts such as dictatorship, gender, class and professional category, the circumstances of female educators. The historical sources used are: Official Bulletin of the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts (1923-1930); periodical press; educational legislation; monographs; appeals drawn up by female teachers; letters and missives written by female educators. The sample is made up of teachers, normalistas, headmistresses and inspectors sanctioned from 1923 to 1930 in a total of 1,167 records. In conclusion, we argue that the complexity of the study of the link between female teachers and the primorriverista dictatorship requires new analyses of their gender relations, the pacts and clashes they expressed during this period, since it was a non-homogeneous regime that generated a multiplicity of professional and personal experiences. This historical approach has demanded sources that have allowed us to delve into the subjectivity of these educators, and the use of egodocuments has facilitated an approach not only to the public sphere of their actions, but also to the private sphere, highlighting their subjectivity and their views of the dictatorship.