Age and Feminist Activism: The Feminist Protest Within the Catholic Church in Franco's Spain

This article examines the existence of a positive relationship between age and feminist activism by analyzing the empirical case of feminist protest within the Catholic Church in Franco's Spain. Drawing on published documents and 15 interviews, this study shows that middle-aged and elderly women have more experience and resources for participating in feminist movements than younger women. The study also identifies the circumstances where the positive relationship between age and feminist activism is more robust. The findings contradict assumptions of mainstream social movement scholarship and part of the scholarship in life-course studies and politics: that as individuals progress into middle- or old-age, many of them tend to become more committed to the established political and social order and thus less interested in (and less active in) social movements that pursue political and social change.