A Transnational Gender History of Southern European Feminisms (1900-1939)

This paper seeks to analyze the transnational connections that existed between various feminist movements in Southern Europe, in a period started from the beginning of the twentieth century until World War II. By studying their emergence and the challenges these social movements faced in a difficult context - crisis of the thirties and the rise of dictatorships- this paper aims to contribute to a transnational gender history of a part of Europe that has been neglected by historiography. How did the feminists groups reacted with World War I? Did they reassert patriotism or even nationalism? Were they unanimous in their condemnation of the war or did it exist some opposing tendencies? By analyzing the contradictions to which feminist movements were confronted, this paper aims to discuss the similarities and the differences between them.