The Government of Spain will declare the feminist demonstrations of March 8 as a Place of Democratic Memory, for its contribution to the consolidation of democracy and women's rights in Spain.
The Official State Gazette published this morning the opening of the dossier. March 8 was established in 1975 by the United Nations as International Women’s Day, in memory of the first feminist demonstrations that began to be convened in New York, from where it spread throughout many countries in the following years.
Feminist claims in Spain gained strength in the early years of the 20th century and advanced prominently in Spain during the years of the Second Republic (1931-1936), when the feminist movement achieved achievements such as the right to vote, the establishment of civil marriage, divorce or universal access to education.
“These achievements and rights were suppressed with the arrival of the dictatorship, when the role of women was relegated to the private and domestic sphere,” said the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, who recalls that, with the recovery of democracy and the first feminist demonstration authorized in Spain on March 8, 1978, “the feminist movement regained momentum, and demanded the lost rights and the expansion of others that had already been consolidated in democratic Europe.”
The Secretary of State welcomed the opening of the feminist demonstrations in Spain because “the demonstrations of every March 8 have become a tidal wave of democracy and tribute to the women who have led the fight for equality between women and men, and an example for future generations. Tribute is thus paid to the thousands of women who have been fighting over these years for the achievement of the rights and freedoms of all women.”