Women's suffrage in the Spanish Second Republic period was the result of efforts dating back to the mids. Women and men working towards universal suffrage had to combat earlier feminist goals that prioritized social goals, including access to education, political rights such as a woman's right to vote and equal wages. As a middle class developed and women gained more access to education, they began to focus more on the issue of suffrage but this was often around specific ideological philosophies; it was not tied into a broader working class movement calling for women's emancipation.
Between and , several attempts were made to give women the right to vote. The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera would see a two-year period where women held the right to vote, from to Because of a move from an elected congress to an appointed government, no elections were held in this period and women never went to the polls. Unsuccessful attempts to give women suffrage also took place in , , and Despite this, Primo de Rivera's royal decree and the arguments put forward in that period would prove influential during the debate in the period to come.
The Second Republic would see women granted full emancipation, including the right to vote, on 1 October with women going to the polls only twice: on 2 November and again in The right to vote came after the passing of a constitution after elections in June Both sides of the suffrage movement had women representing their causes in one of the greatest duels between Spanish parliamentarians.
Campoamor claimed that women's access to the ballot box was an ethical obligation for the Congress and that Spanish women had won it having battled on behalf of the Republic for a long time. Kent argued women were not yet ready to vote as they were not sufficiently educated to make an informed decision, submitting to the wishes of their husbands and the Church, a position supported by the conservatives although they had different reasons for resisting women's suffrage.
Following Francisco Franco 's victory in the Spanish Civil War, neither women nor men would be able to vote in national elections until , two years after his death. Spanish women did not hold the same status as citizens as men from to Single Spanish women enjoyed a few more legal rights than their married peers once they reached the age of At that point, unmarried women could sign contracts and run businesses on their own behalf.
