Women's suffrage in Francoist Spain and the democratic transition was constrained by age limits, definitions around heads of household and a lack of elections. Women got the right to vote in Spain in 1933 as a result of legal changes made during the Second Spanish Republic. Women lost most of their rights after Franco came to power in 1939 at the end of the Spanish Civil War, with the major exception that women did not universally lose their right to vote. Repression of the women's vote occurred nevertheless as the dictatorship held no national democratic elections between 1939 and 1977.
The Franco regime imposed changes around women's suffrage, namely as it related to the need for women to be heads of household and around women's age of majority. Originally, the age was 23, but this was reduced to 21 in 1943 provided women were no longer living with their parents; otherwise the age of majority was 25. Several national referendums were held in Spain, where women could vote if they were over the age of 21, for example in 1942, 1947 and 1966. Women could, under certain conditions involving age and marital status, vote in municipal elections. They could also run in municipal elections. Dolores Pérez Lapeña was one such women, winning in Valladolid in the 1963 elections.The first national elections in which women could vote took place in 1977, two years after the death of Franco.
However, during Francoist Spain and the democratic transition, there were legal ambiguities over women's free right to vote, due to restrictions of women's rights in civil law, with unmarried and married women being under the guardianship of their fathers and husbands, respectively. In 1975, the permiso marital was abolished, improving the legal status of married women. The 1978 Spanish constitution gave men and women equality under the law, effectively ending the Franco regime's system of guardianship for single women, and a new family law was enacted in 1981, giving married women full civil rights, and also legalizing divorce.
History
Francoist period (1939–1975)
The first time all Spanish women could vote in elections for the national legislature was on 19 November 1933 during the Second Spanish Republic. These women would only be able to vote in national elections one more time, in 1936. This period ended with the Spanish Civil War and the official start of Francoist Spain in 1939. Between 1939 and 1976, the opportunities to vote on the national level were nearly non-existent in Spain. There were three national referendums, and two elections for attorneys to represent families in the courts. There were also eight municipal elections. Because of controls by the dictatorship, elected municipal and legislative officials were limited in the changes they could enact.
Women nominally maintained the right to vote, one of the few rights carried over from the Second Republic to the Francoist period. Universal suffrage existed in Spain during the dictatorship, but the only time people could vote was during referendums and for municipal officials. While direct voting was allowed, repression of women still existed as only the head of household could vote. This largely excluded women, as only widowed women were generally considered heads of household. Women's suffrage also changed because of rules around the age of majority and the voting age. The age of majority for women became 23 as a result of the imposition of the reintroduction of the Civil Code of 1889, Article 321. This changed in 1943, when the age of majority was lowered to 21 so as to be consistent for both genders. An additional clause still stipulated women did not reach majority until they were 25 unless they were married or joined a convent. No elections or referendums took place in the period between 1939 and 1944; despite legal changes in the age of majority, women continued to be disenfranchised as the dictatorship did not hold elections. The voting age for women appeared to change again in 1945, when the age for some women was lowered to 18. According to Article 5 of the Decree of 29 September 1945, voters included, "Spaniards, neighbors and people over 21 years, or emancipated people over the age of 18, men or women, under whose dependence other persons coexist in the same home." Most public efforts around franchising of women in this period were based on regime attempts to be perceived abroad as more democratic, and did not necessarily lead to greater numbers of eligible voters or meaningful and free elections that could result in undermining the regime.