Sport and social movements: The case of Catholic feminist Lilí Álvarez in 20th century Spain

Leaders and activists of social movements at times have a background of first-class achievements in sport. How does this sport background affect their activism? This paper argues that a background of sport achievements often provides their holders with publicity, public stature and social and political connections.

To investigate the above propositions, this paper analyzes a case study with primary and secondary sources: that of Lilí Álvarez (1905-1998). She was a Spanish Catholic feminist who individually and together with other Catholic women tirelessly advocated women’s rights before, during and after the right-wing dictatorship headed by General Francisco Franco (1939-1975). She was better known for her national and international multi--sport achievements most notably reaching the Wimbledon singles finals in three consecutive years in the late 1920s. In a non-democratic political context such as Franco’s Spain, where political actors other than the single party and its auxiliary organizations were strictly forbidden and ferociously repressed, Lilí Álvarez’s sport background allowed her to maintain public activity and links with numerous key political and social figures, because sport was seen by policy makers as a relatively neutral social activity (from a political point of view). At a time when women’s collective action to erode gender hierarchies was not at all a mass movement but a numerically tiny phenomenon, Lilí Álvarez’s sport record gave her and the causes she fought for publicity and respectability.