Women Combatants in the Spanish Civil War: Conceptual and Methodological Weaknesses of a New Paradigm

Recent studies regarding the participation of women anti-fascists in the military effort during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939 have renewed this field of knowledge. Up until now, all the attention had been focused on the role of women combatants. However, a series of new research endeavours have begun to investigate the non-combatant roles played by hundreds of women within military units. In principle, this broadening of the scope of study should allow for a more complex analysis of the process of female mobilization in the Republican zone during the war. However, as this article examines, this new paradigm has been hampered by a multitude of conceptual inaccuracies and methodological deficiencies that have led to a high degree of confusion, inaccuracy, and numerous factual mistakes. It points out that the theoretical and methodological weaknesses of this new paradigm have diluted the gender conflict inherent in the process of military mobilization in the Republican zone. The article is divided into four sections. Firstly, it criticizes the ineffectiveness of the new concept of a "woman combatant" elaborated by Gonzalo Berger and the Virtual Museum of the Woman Combatant. Secondly, it disagrees with the argument put forth in various studies regarding the unnecessary distinction between the different roles played by women in military units in the wartime context. Thirdly, it discusses interpretations of the policies displayed by the Republican government in relation to female integration into the People's Army based on the certainty that there was never an official expulsion of women combatants. Finally, it demonstrates how these conceptual and methodological inaccuracies have led to interpretative and factual mistakes concerning the contribution of foreign volunteer women to the war effort in the militias and the International Brigades.