Women at the Polls: Assessing their Impact on the 1933 Right-Wing Victory in Spain

We study the impact of female enfranchisement on the right-wing victory in Spain’s 1933 elections, the first held with national women’s suffrage. Using a novel database covering the 1931, 1933, and 1936 general elections in 7,988 municipalities (87% of the total), we find a modest positive association between the female proportion and the increase in right-wing votes from 1931 onward. This effect concentrates in small municipalities (under 1,500 inhabitants), where traditional norms and religious influence likely shaped women’s conservative preferences. In contrast, in larger municipalities, where most Spaniards lived, the female proportion had no significant effect. An instrumental variable analysis using altitude as an instrument supports these findings. While women’s enfranchisement contributed to the right’s success in rural areas, its national impact was limited. This occurred in a context where the suffragist movement in Spain was largely symbolic and played little role in politically mobilizing women.

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