Clara Campoamor: role models

I wanted to start a mini series on my blog of inspirational figures throughout history and from nowadays who I look up to as a woman. I'm hoping that this will make you more informed of these people and their dedicated lifelong work in creating a better society. The first woman I have to begin with is Clara Campoamor. Of course, she is Spanish which is predictable considering my love for Spain and the language. She was a Spanish lawyer, politician and feminist at the time of Spain's Civil War. 

Her life 

Clara was born in Madrid on February the 12th 1888 and died on April the 30th 1972. She was born to working-class parents and her father, Manuel Campoamor Martinez, died during her childhood, leaving her mother, Pilar Rodriguez Martinez, to raise a family under difficult circumstances. Throughout her life, she worked as a seamstress, then at the Spanish postal service before obtaining a position as a teacher of typewriting. She also worked as a secretary for the newspaper La Tribuna and translated French for a publishing house. 

In 1923, she finished a university diploma by taking evening classes and the following year she achieved a law degree. Clara became increasingly drawn to politics. She advocated for key issues such as women's rights and was affiliated with the Spanish Social Party. At the time of 1923-30, Manuel Primo de Rivera was the dictator and nominated Clara to join the Junta of the Ateneo. However, she refused and became active in legal and education circles. Clara was interested in female suffrage rather than adhering to a political party. 

After Primo de Rivera fell and the king Alphonso XII were abdicated in 1931, Spaniards declared the Second Republic in the country. Campoamor won the election to the Constituent Cortes, which was the National Assembly. She attempted to win female support by funding the Feminine Republican Union which ultimately led her to be isolated within her own party. As a result, she failed to win reelection in 1933. In 1934, she was part of the investigating commission sent to Oviedo following the brutal suppression of the miners. 

Then came the Civil War in 1936. She published her account of events in Spain in 1937 in a book and went into exile. She made her way to Argentina and attempted to return to Spain but the Franco government refused to grant her residence. Despondent over the situation in Spain, Campoamor abandoned politics. Instead she translated French novels into Spanish and wrote biographies. 

She was denied another request to return to Spain in 1951. This resulted in her moving to Switzerland in 1955 where she worked in the legal office of Antoinette quinche. She died in 1972. 

Her politics 

Undoubtedly it is Clara Campoamora to whom we must thank for the milestone in women's rights. As the founder of the Feminine Republican Union, this became the great impeller of the feminine suffrage movement in Spain. She was also the first woman to intervene before the Supreme Court and to develop jurisprudence (legal theory) on issues related to the rights of women in Spain. In 1928, she also created with the companions of other European countries the International Federation of Women in Legal Care, which still exists and in 1930 contributed to the founding of the Spanish Feminine League for Peace. 

In Spain, women only received the vote under the constitution of the new Republic, passed by the Constituent Cortes in December 1931. This pressure for the female vote did not come from mass movement but from this tiny elite of educated women from the Socialist party, most notably Clara Campoamor. She was a member of the commission which drafted the constitution and who led the argument for women's legal equality in the Cortes debate in October 1931. In that body, she fought against sexual discrimination, for the legal equality of children born within and outside marriage, the right to divorce and the universal suffrage. She achieved everything except the vote, which had to be debated in the Spanish Parliament. 

The Left, with the exception of the Socialists and the Republicans, did not want women to vote because they were supposed to be heavily influenced by the Church and would vote in favour of the Right. The final debate on October 1 was a big event. Campoamor was considered the winner and as a consequence, the adoption of the article 36, which enabled women's suffrage, was achieved with 161 votes in favour, 121 against. 

Her confidence is something that I aspire to have - to speak in front of a Parliament of men and fight for women's rights is admirable. She was against other women of her time, especially Victoria Kent, who opposed giving women the right to vote immediately. She suffered as a political outcast in what was and would escalate to be a tumultuous political environment. She was barred from entering her home country as time went by. Even as an exile, she still continued to write about feminism and her experiences in politics. 

For me, she is a role model for persevering with confidence when the world is against you. In 1998, the Ministry of Equality of Andalusian PSOE established the Clara Campoamor Award which is dedicated to those individuals that have been important in the defense of women's equality. In 2011, due to the centenary of International Women's Day, the National Mint and Stamp produced a commemorative silver coin values at 20 euros. The coin shows the picture of Clara Campoamor. However, it still baffles me that there is no bust dedicated to her in Spain. She was a key figure in the history of Spain and her actions have contributed to the forming of Spain's current political landscape.