A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Equal Participation in Rituals in a Festival Context

Abstract

Although women’s participation in intangible cultural heritage has long been challenged by feminist groups in Spain, it is only in the past two decades that their claims have been taken up by government. In this article, we reflect on the application of the principle of equality to rituals in the festival context and argue that women’s demands to take part may be considered a vindication, a call for retribution of a historical offence: the exclusion of women from public and symbolic spaces of their community. We contend the symbolic efficacy of their actions, a transformative power that entails reparation both in the symbolic arena and in the social, political and legislative order. Rituals in festivals emerge as contexts where women might obtain compensation and reparation for the historical discrimination not amended in the judicial or legislative arena.