The Rewards of Female Fascism in Franco's New State: The Recompensas Y of the Seccion Femenina de la Falange, 1939-1945

The Recompensas Y' (the decorations awarded to the Seccion Femenina of the Falange (SF) members for their work before and during the Spanish Civil War) were part of the apparatus of medals and insignia in the New State's politics of reward. The Y' award documentation gives a greater sense of the diversity of early female Falangists' lived experience than hitherto available, and adds to our understanding of pre-war female fascism. The documentation suggests the significance of the 1937 Unification of Nationalist forces under Franco in terms of gender history and the impact it had on SF members' lives. It also allows us to nuanceand in places constructively problematizethe at times rather homogeneous, defensive later self-representations by SF members.