April 12, 2021: Queen Letizia attended an event in tribute of Clara Campoamor.
Clara Campoamor Rodríguez (1888 – 1972) was a Spanish politician and feminist best known for her advocacy for women’s rights and suffrage during the writing of the Spanish Constitution of 1931. Her advocacy led to the inclusion of constitutional language that sought to guarantee equality between men and women.
She was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1931, before women were allowed to vote themselves. She later lost her parliamentary seat and briefly served as a government minister, before fleeing the country during the Spanish Civil War.
Campoamor successfully advocated in 1927 for improvements to the child labor laws and electoral law changes. When it became legal for women to run for the Constituent Assembly that would write a new constitution in 1931, she stood for a seat and was elected despite her inability to vote in the election.
When her own party decided to oppose women’s suffrage, she left the party and continued to advocate for suffrage as an independent member of the assembly. Throughout her political career, Campoamor insisted that her main role was to be a spokesperson for women, and women’s issues remained her primary concern. She maintained an independent affiliation amid a strong party system at the time, with the support of women’s activists throughout Spain she was able to secure equal legal status for women in the new constitution.
In 1936, as the start of the Spanish Civil War brought violence to Madrid, she fled the country in fear for her life. Settling in Lausanne, Switzerland, she was barred from returning to Francoist Spain, unless she gave up names of allies and publicly apologized for past statements against the Catholic Church. As an exile, she continued to write about feminism and her experiences in politics.
Campoamor died in exile in 1972. Her ashes were repatriated and buried at the Polloe Cemetery in San Sebastián in May 1972.