Carmen Sarmiento: the inclusion of feminism in francoist television as a method of opposition to dictatorship

Abstract

During the Francoist dictatorship, a female model was imposed in Spain relegating women to what was called “ángel del hogar” (“home angel”). Spanish women were thought of only as daughters, mothers and wives subordinate to men. In this socio-political context, in 1973, a program called Informe Semanal (Weekly Report) aired on the only television network in Spain in those times (TVE) and was a complete audience success. Every Saturday, reports were broadcast which set the socio-informative agenda of the week. Within the program’s professional team, Carmen Sarmiento stood out as a feminist journalist who managed to introduce feminism in Televisión Española (Spanish Television), denouncing the reality of Spanish women, fostering a social change aimed for gender equality and democracy. To carry out this investigation that recovers the figure of Carmen Sarmiento, a qualitative study has been developed based on the audiovisual documents at the TVE archives and interviews with the journalist.

Keywords

• feminism
• agenda setting
• dictatorship
• carmen sarmiento
• television.