Blue Angels: Female Fascist Resisters, Spies and Intelligence Officials in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–9

Pro-Franco Nationalist women were supposed to be the antithesis of the only women who, it has been assumed, were really active in the war: Republican women. Pro-Franco women are assumed to have supported both established social and gender traditions, having collaborated in the war effort without transgressing these roles. This article argues that historians have underestimated pro-Franco women’s participation in anti-Republican underground activities, in part because they have tended to make a false distinction between a ‘real’ Fifth Column, where men were clearly predominant, and ‘merely’ supportive roles, where women were crucial and often in the majority. On the contrary, this article argues that Nationalist women played a key, active role in intelligence activities in the Fifth Column, in acts of resistance against the Republic and also when posted abroad conducting espionage activities, or working in information gathering behind Francoist lines.