Episode 71 with Kathryn L. Mahaney

In this episode, Kathryn Mahaney, author of Feminism, National Identity, and European Integration in Modern Spain: Defining a Democracy, 1960-Present, offers insights on over 60 years of feminist history in Spain from the late Franco regime to the present day. How did the movement emerge from its secret origins during the Franco regime, what were the achievements of and divisions within the movement during the Transition to democracy, and what are the greatest challenges facing the movement today? These are some of the questions that Mahaney addresses as we discuss one of the most central and contested social movements defining Spanish society today.

The Episode

The Guest

Kathryn L. Mahaney (PhD in Modern European History, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2018) is an independent researcher and sessional lecturer at the University of Helsinki. Her first book, Feminism, National Identity and European Integration in Modern Spain: Defining a Democracy, 1960-Present, was published with Bloomsbury Academic in 2024. She also has a chapter, “Independents, Institutionalists, and the International Feminist Fight in Late Twentieth-Century Spain and Europe,” in Transnational Feminism in Non-English Speaking Europe, c.1960-1990, also out in 2024. She’s currently working on two new (and completely unrelated) projects, one about the transnational history of dinghy sailing in the postwar period, and another about transgender healthcare in Finland.

Suggested Readings

• McBride, Dorothy E., and Amy G. Mazur. The Politics of State Feminism: Innovation in Comparative Research. Temple University Press, 2010.
• Morcillo, Aurora G. True Catholic Womanhood: Gender Ideology in Franco’s Spain. Northern Illinois University Press, 1999.
• Ofer, Inbal. Señoritas in Blue: The Making of a Female Political Elite in Franco’s Spain. Sussex Academic Press, 2010.
• Radcliff, Pamela Beth. Making Democratic Citizens in Spain: Civil Society and the Popular Origins of the Transition, 1960-78. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
• Richmond, Kathleen. Women and Spanish Fascism: The Women’s Section of the Falange 1934-1959. Routledge, 2003.
• Van der Vleuten, Anna. The Price of Gender Equality: Member States and Governance in the European Union. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013.