English (translation)

Rough translation of article “La cuestión femenina en nuestros medios”, Part I, Lucía Sanchez Saornil,
Solidaridad Obrera, September 26, 1935.

The Feminine Question in Our Midst I

I THANK M.R. VÁZQUEZ that, with his article published in these same columns, “Women: A
Revolutionary Factor” – very well focused indeed – he has given me the opportunity to return to this
topic.
In other newspapers ─ “El Libertario”, “CNT” ─ and on different occasions I have said something
about how much must be said about the importance that the recruitment of women would have for our
movement.
But in this matter it is necessary to speak clearly, very clearly; There is no room for circumlocutions
among us, we must be sincere even if this sincerity makes us bitter; Let us hoist the flag {literally
“palm”} ourselves, even though we will bruise {tear} our knuckles; Only at the cost of this will we
enter the path of truth.
Vázquez complains, as I have repeatedly complained, that there is not enough propaganda of our ideas
among women; and after observing the facts, after having analyzed them, I have come to draw this
conclusion: the participation of women is of little interest – not to anarcho-syndicalism, beware – but to
the anarcho-syndicalist comrades.
I seem to hear a series of angry voices rising against me. Calm down, friends: I haven't even started.
When I affirm a thing I am always ready to demonstrate it, and (so) I go to it.
Nothing could be easier than propaganda among women – I wish all our goals had the same simplicity!
Propaganda in the unions? Propaganda at the ateneos (cultural associations)? Propaganda at home! It is
the simplest and the most effective. In which home is there no woman, compañera (female comrade),
daughter, sister? Well, there is the crux of the matter. Let us suppose that the Confederación Nacional
del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labor) has one million members. Shouldn't you have at least
another million sympathizers among women? What labor would it cost then to organize them if your
organization considers it necessary? As we see, the difficulty is not there, the difficulty is elsewhere: in
the lack of will of the compañeros (male comrades) themselves.
I have seen many homes, no longer of simple confederates, but of anarchists (?!?) governed by the
purest feudal norms. Of what use, then, are rallies, conferences, workshops, the whole range of
propaganda, if it is not your compañeras (female companions), the women of your house who are to
attend them? What women are you referring to then?
For this reason, it is not worth saying: “You have to advertise among women, you have to attract
women to our midst”, but we have to consider the issue from farther, from much farther away. The vast
majority, comrades, let's make the exception of a dozen well-oriented, have a mentality contaminated
by the characteristic bourgeois aberrations. While clamoring against property, they are enthusiastic
owners. While they stand up against slavery, they are the cruelest "masters". While they shout against
the monopoly, they are the most bitter monopolists. And all this stems from the most false concept that
humanity could have created. The supposed "female inferiority". An error that may have delayed
centuries of civilization.
The last slave, once crossing the threshold of his home, becomes sovereign and lord. A wish of his,
barely insinuated, is a categorical order for the women of his house. He who, ten minutes before,
swallowed all the gall of bourgeois humiliation, rises as a tyrant, making those unfortunates feel all the
bitterness of their alleged inferiority.
Don't tell me I'm exaggerating. I could offer you handfuls of examples.
Comrades are not interested in the participation {or struggle? literally contest} of woman. I cite some
true cases.
Several times I had to have a dialogue with a partner who seemed quite sensible to me and I had always
heard him increase the need that he felt in our movement for women's participation {or struggle?
literally contest}. One day, when there was a Conference at the Center, I asked him:
“And your partner, why didn't she come to hear the conference?”
The answer chilled me.
“My partner has enough to do taking care of myself and my children.”
Another day was in the hallways of the Audiencia (court of justice). I was in the company of a comrade
who held a representative position. A lawyer came out of one of the rooms, perhaps a defender of the
cause of some proletarian. My companion looked at her sideways and murmured while outlining a
spiteful smile:
“I send them to scrub.” {as in “scrub things clean”, does it also have a sexual context?}
These two episodes, at first glance so banal: how many sad things do they not say? Above all, they say
that we have forgotten something very important; that while we concentrated all our energies into
agitational work we postponed the educational. We don't have to do the propaganda of female
attraction among women, but among our compañeros (male companions). We must begin by uprooting
from their brains the idea of superiority. When they are told that all human beings are equal, woman
should be understood among human beings, even though she vegetates among the things of the home
confused with pans and domestic animals. We must tell them that in women there is an intelligence like
his and an acute sensitivity and a need to overcome: that before reforming society, one needs to reform
the home. What he dreams of for the future – equality and justice – must be established starting today
among their own. It is absurd to ask women for understanding of the problems of humanity if he does
not inspire her first so that she can see within herself, if he does not try to awaken the consciousness of
personality in the woman who shares life with him, and finally, if he does not first elevate her to the
category of individual.
This, and no other, is the propaganda that can attract women to our midst. Which of them will stop
embracing the cause that has worked the “miracle” of revealing their own being to them?
To the task, then, comrades.
And if we consider that this is an interesting problem for the revolutionary movement, let us not hide it
as an embarrassment among the narrow columns of the telegraphic information pages of our
newspapers. Let's give it air, let's make it available to everyone. (This is for you, comrade Director.)
As for the compañeros (male comrades), may they forgive my harshness; but it is necessary if we do
not want to deceive ourselves.