Folding Chair

Family and family relations

This early 20th century folding chair used for attending mass bears witness to the extension of the domestic role of women to the public sphere in the early 1900s, when women had begun to participate in social activism while still maintaining their traditional gender roles. The turn of the century mobilized women to reinstill Christian values in society through charitable acts and the education of young girls. The 20th century also witnessed the attempt of Carlism to engage women in politics through patriotic slogans. The ensuing period marked by the revolutionary left and feminist movements led to the professionalization of Catholic practices by women, a shift aligned with the political right. This process culminated with the creation of the Sección Feminina, the women’s branch of the Falange political movement, which was modeled after a profoundly traditional gender archetype based on self-denial and self-sacrifice. The confinement of women within the hierarchical domestic sphere was thus reinforced by the same cultural framework that had encouraged their participation in the traditionally male public sphere