Zapatero’s 600 Years: Women Studied Long Before the PSOE

The PSOE and 600 Years: Clara Campoamor Graduated in 1924

In 1929, a woman obtained an industrial engineering degree from the Special School of Industrial Engineers in Madrid. Her name was Pilar Careaga, and she was also the first Spaniard to drive a train. Forty years later, in 1969, she became the mayor of Bilbao. The PSOE was not in power. History, however, has become a battleground where each party tries to claim the medal of pogre, and in this struggle, the narrative is falling apart.

The controversy erupted with a PSOE social media post: "600 years had to pass in this country, since men were in University, for women to access Education. In 40 years, we have rectified history." The text was accompanied by an intervention by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The statement, launched as a slogan, collides head-on with the records.

When did women really enter university?

Clara Campoamor graduated in Law in 1924. A full century before Zapatero made his statement. It is true that university women were a very small minority then, but access was not prohibited. Campoamor herself proved it. And it was not an isolated case: Pilar Careaga graduated in 1929, and Luisa Frías became a professor at the University of Valencia, where she worked until she was assassinated in 1936.

In late Francoism, women already represented a significant portion of classrooms. A frequently cited figure—which should be handled with caution—states that in 1975, for the first time, there were more women than men in Spanish universities. Without positive discrimination campaigns, without equality ministries, without quotas. This figure is not verified with the certainty required for a headline, but it fits with the system's evolution.

The evolution of university students disproves the narrative

The enrollment figures in the debate show a sustained expansion starting before 1982. In the 1970/71 academic year, there were about 200,000 university students in Spain. By 1974/75, the figure had risen to 500,000. In 1980/81, there were already 650,000. And in 1992/93, the system exceeded 1.3 million. The quantitative leap occurred largely during the final years of Francoism and the Transition, not from the first socialist government.

• 1970/71 — 200,000 university students
• 1974/75 — 500,000
• 1980/81 — 650,000
• 1992/93 — 1.3 million

The debate over whether that integration was massive or incipient is legitimate; the question of whether it was prohibited is not. Yearbooks from the era, which some rescue to disprove the official narrative, show a female presence growing year by year. Those participating in the debate emphasize that today’s university—crowded, with degrees of questionable employability, and a degree that no longer guarantees anything—has little to do with that era.

Divorce and other historical appropriations

Zapatero’s statement is not an isolated incident. Some argue that a socialist minister attributed the introduction of divorce in Spain to the PSOE, when it was the UCD government of Adolfo Suárez that approved the law in 1981, according to that same narrative. The confusion—or appropriation—does not seem like a slip: it responds to a tendency to rewrite recent history to fit the narrative of the present.

This tendency has a colloquial name in digital forums: hysterical memory, a parody of official historical memory that consists of remembering only what is convenient and forgetting what is an obstacle. The PSOE did not invent women’s university education, just as it did not invent Social Security. But it has found fertile ground in the forgetfulness of younger generations to position itself as the founder of everything good.

Women who studied before Zapatero

The list is long, and the debate cites names such as Margarita Salas, Ana María Matute, or Cristina Almeida, along with María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, Rosa Díez, Margarita Robles, Julia Otero, Ana Blanco, Rosa María Calaf, or Nieves Herrero, as examples of women educated before the PSOE came to power. Many had teachers educated during Franco’s time and knew pharmacists and nurses who were educated before the PSOE came to power.

It is worth remembering that access to university was not universal for anyone, men included. The higher education enrollment rate was low in absolute terms, but women who wanted and could study did so. The barrier was economic and social, not legal. And that nuance demolishes the 600-year slogan.

Why does the 600-year narrative take hold?

The key lies in forgetfulness. For a young voter without family members who attended university, Spain before 1982 is a remote and vague country. The slogan works because there is no contrast. Today’s university—crowded, with degrees of questionable employability, and a degree that no longer guarantees anything—has little to do with that era.

Some argue that this is not an error, but a deliberate strategy. Repeatedly claiming that the PSOE brought education, divorce, and women’s rights seeks to capitalize on pogre that was collective. Democracy does not equal the PSOE, and women’s integration into universities did not begin in 1982. It began earlier, with names and surnames that propaganda prefers to erase.

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The fact remains: in 1924, when Clara Campoamor graduated in Law, the history of women in university did not begin with a socialist decree. It began with them.