A New History of Iberian Feminisms ed. by Silvia Bermúdez and Roberta Johnson (review)

One might wonder if there is really a need for another history of Spanish feminism considering the fine work that has been done in the recent past by noted North American and European scholars such as Lisa Vollendorf, Geraldine Scanlon, and Mary Nash, among others. After reading A New History of Iberian Feminisms there remains absolutely no doubt that this book is not only necessary but ground-breaking. It traces the growth and development of Iberian feminist thought since the Enlightenment while presenting the radical notion of how women's social and political history can challenge traditional demarcations of time periods. By rethinking the very idea of history as woman-centered and revolving around key moments of women's progress, such as changes in marriage laws during the eighteenth century (34) or the labor crisis of World War I that forced women into the labor market for the first time (99), this remarkable study effectively undermines patriarchal assumptions of history and progress. This study also affirms that the sociopolitical development of Iberian peoples did not solely depend on what one might consider typically dominant events (military invasions, the outcomes of war, changes in government leadership), but, instead, grew in large part out of a society of men and women becoming conscious of gender equality.

Bermúdez and Johnson, both highly regarded critics and scholars of feminist cultural studies, bring together in this jam-packed edition the importance of transnational feminist studies that carefully delineates the specificities of Iberian cultures yet manages to result in a coherent whole. The chapters are all interconnected and flow together effortlessly while presenting detailed accounts of feminisms across the Iberian spectrum including Portugal, Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country. The book is divided into six parts, each containing five to eight chapters, including a detailed historical overview of each period. The divisions include: "Iberian Feminism in the Age of the Enlightenment"; "The Long Nineteenth Century (1808-1920)"; "The Iberian Feminist Movements Gain Strength under Republics, (1910-1939)"; "The Dictatorships of António de Oliveira de Salazar (1926-1974) and Francisco Franco (1939-1975)"; "A New Beginning: The Transition to Democracy and Iberian Second-Wave Feminism (1974/1975-1994/1996)"; and "Iberian Feminisms' Diversity: 1996 to the Present." Within each of these larger sections, the chapters deal with particulars of the time and most manage to include individual chapters about the development of feminist thought in Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Portugal. Johnson and Bermúdez contribute several chapters to the volume and there are multiple entries by standout scholars, such as Maryellen Bieder, Christine Arkinstall, Mary Nash, and others, that make up a robust representation of approaches and expertise from both sides of the Atlantic. The authors do an excellent job defining the regional differences that play out on the feminist stage, such as the large number of men who emigrated from Galicia to the New World, leaving "more economic and other responsibilities on women's shoulders" (217), as Johnson and Olga Castro point out in the historical overview of the third part "Strength under Republics." Regional politics often come into play, as in the case of Catalonia, where feminists such as Federica Montseny forged the solid link between feminism and anarchism (219).

Running throughout the study are not only the landmark achievements of first-, second- and third-wave feminism, but also the struggles confronted by feminists to be acknowledged by both men and women as social and political leaders. Bieder writes in "Women Authors in the Romantic Tradition (1841-1884) and Early Feminist Thought (1861-1893)" about the frustration Emilia Pardo Bazán expressed claiming that feminism would never "take root in Spain; men mocked it and made jokes about it. Women fled from it, and their attitude became an obstacle to those females who sought change" (127). In this chapter, Bieder also cites Pardo Bazán's 1919 article, in which she states "¡ah las mujeres! Se crispaban, se escandalizaban...