Cooking for the Patria: The Seccion Femenina and the Politics of Food and Women during the Franco Years

This study elucidates the importance of cooking manuals and recipe collections published by the Sección Femenina de la Falange (Womens Section of the Falange, 1934-1977) during the Franco Dictatorship (1939-1975) in Spain. The organization emphasized its dedication to pursuing women's interests to the political apparatus in its political rhetoric and experienced a substantial amount of autonomy from the Franco regime in communicating feminine ideals and social reform to the Spanish public. Recipes and cooking instruction provided the organization a unique way to access Spanish homes and reform the quotidian habits of Spanish women. The ideology of the Sección Femenina emphasized the importance of revolutionary reform beginning with the individual but desired to have a larger impact through housewives to improve the family and greater society. The Sección Femenina created an ideal for Spanish womanhood yet tried accommodated its femininity for individual variation of class, regional origin, and age. An investigation of cooking publications provides new insight to how the organization worked within the space prescribed by the Franco regime in hopes of reforming Spanish women, the home, and society. This thesis examines how the Sección Femenina used food ideology to communicate Falange ideology to women.

Name thesis:degree_name

History

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Dunai, Suzanne

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sanabria, Enrique
• Ferguson, Eliza
• Bokovoy, Melissa
• Hutchinson, Elizabeth

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/25

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:hist_etds-1024