Citation/Abstract

The role of women in Spanish society, at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century, was shaped by interactions between the legal system, the Catholic Church, customs, and the politics of marriage. The inflexibility of these aforementioned institutions catalyzed the feminist movement in Spain. Specifically, some women writers used the unyielding nature of the patriarchal system as a central theme in their novels, emphasizing the impacts on married women. At the same time married women were receptive to changes in the private sphere that bettered their lives, including increased access to educational and economic opportunities. This played a central role in the development of the idea of the New Woman "La Mujer Nueva," which was reflected in the characters in novels of the feminist writers Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921) and Carmen de Burgos (1867-1932). These novels collectively dealt with the changing roles of women in marriage and the public sphere. One major change for women was the promotion, by the media, of consumption-based fashion. The pursuit of such luxuries by women profoundly affected their public and private lives, both with positive liberating consequences and in some cases with devastating effects.