In the literature of the present time Spanish women are renowned. Of first rank is Emilia Pardo Bazan, who is called the “Spanish Zola.” She is a countess and an only daughter, two circumstances that facilitated her emancipation and, together with her talent, assured her success. She characterizes herself as “a mixture of mysticism and liberalism.” At the age of seven she wrote her first verses. Her best book portrayed a “liberal monk,” Father Fequë. Pascual Loper, a novel, was a great success. She then went to Paris to study naturalism. Here she became acquainted with Zola, Goncourt, Daudet, and others. A study of Francis of Assisi led her again to the study of mysticism. In her recent novels liberalism is mingled with idealism.

Emilia Pardo Bazan is by conviction a woman’s rights advocate. In the Madrid Atheneum she filled with great success the position of Professor of French Literature. At the pedagogical congress in Madrid, in 1899, she gave a report on Woman, her Education, and her Rights.

In Spain there are a number of well-known women journalists, authors, and poets. Dr. Posada enumerates a number of woman’s rights publications on pages 200-202 of his book, El Feminismo.

Concepcion Arenal was a prominent Spanish woman and woman’s rights advocate. She devoted herself to work among prisoners, and wrote a valuable handbook dealing with her work. She felt the oppression of her sex very keenly. Concerning woman’s status, which man has forced upon her, Concepcion Arenal expressed herself as follows: “Man despises all women that do not belong to his family; he oppresses every woman that he does not love or protect. As a laborer, he takes from her the best paid positions; as a thinker, he forbids the mental training of woman; as a lover, he can be faithless to her without being punished by law; as a husband, he can leave her without being guilty before the law.”

The wife is legally under the guardianship of her husband; she has no authority over her children. The property laws provide for joint property holding.

In spite of these conditions Concepcion Arenal did not give up all hope. “Women,” said she, “are beginning to take interest in education, and have organized a society for the higher education of girls.” The pedagogical congresses in Madrid (1882 and 1889) promoted the intellectual emancipation of women. Catalina d’Alcala, delegate to the International Congress of Women in Chicago in 1893, closed her report with the words, “We are emerging from the period of darkness.” However, he who has wandered through Spanish cathedrals knows that this darkness is still very dense! Nevertheless, the woman’s suffrage movement has begun: the women laborers are agitating in favor of a new law of association. A number of women teachers and women authors have petitioned for the right to vote. In March, 1908, during the discussion of a new law concerning municipal administration, an amendment in favor of woman’s suffrage was introduced, but was rejected by a vote of 65 to 35. The Senate is said to be more favorable to woman’s suffrage than is the Chamber of Deputies.

The fact that women of the aristocracy have opposed divorce, and that women of all classes have opposed the enactment of laws restricting religious orders, is made to operate against the political emancipation of women. A deputy in the Cortez, Senor Pi y Arsuaga, who introduced the measure in favor of the right of women taxpayers to vote in municipal elections, argued that the suffrage of a woman who is the head of a family seems more reasonable to him than the suffrage of a young man, twenty-five years old, who represents no corresponding interests.

PORTUGAL

Total population:5,672,237.
Women:2,583,535.
Men:2,520,602.
No federation of women’s clubs.
No woman’s suffrage league.