Female elementary schooling during the national-catholicism regime as shown on school notebooks

Abstract

Introduction. Childhood is when our social identity is formed, when we adopt the rules and patterns of behaviour that will accompany us throughout our lives, often in an unconscious manner. Spain’s repressive National-Catholic ideology exerted strict supervision over educators, legislators, and teachers to reinforce a rigid system of social control based on the indoctrination of the Spanish population from an early age. This applied especially to girls and young women, destined for a domestic existence in which they could only develop from daughters to wives and mothers, with little or no access to the public sphere of society. Method. We have conducted a qualitative analysis of 275 school textbooks belonging to Salamanca University’s Museum of Education (Museo Pedagógico) to shed light on girls’ education during the National-Catholic period of Franco’s dictatorship; initially through a conceptual analysis, and subsequently adopting an empirical approach. We shall be using the historical-pedagogical method, contextualising and explaining the textbooks in order to reconstruct the education girls received during the Franco years. Results. The study revels the existence of strong social indoctrination, especially in the early years, which informed a model of womanhood based on three main pillars: family, God and Country. This model restricted the girls’ options as they grew up, with their lives being channelled towards the building of a family unit, keeping them away from the workforce, social life, and politics. Conclusions. As a result, we may contend that the fallout of this indoctrination is still being felt in today’s society, despite the numerous steps and initiatives taken in recent years in favour of equality between men and women.