Women in Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista
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Women in the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification were faced with many of the same problems as other Communist and Anarchist women in the 1930s, such as hypocrisy of the male leadership in their support of women's rights, while continuing their sexist and patriarchal behavior in private.
During the Spanish Civil War, POUM women served in many important roles including POUM governance, POUM militias, writing and publishing POUM-affiliated publications, and serving as teachers among the civilian population. Despite POUM having one of the smallest contingents of women among any leftist organizations, women played an important role in the organization's militias. POUM was unique in that it was the only organization that had not only accepted women but had provided them with weapons training. The group was eventually outlawed, and the May Days events of 1937 saw many POUM women imprisoned or forced into exile.
POUM-affiliated women continued to be excluded after the Civil War. In exile, some POUM women were once again imprisoned. During World War II, the American Nancy MacDonald worked to assist Spanish POUM exiles and refugees in France and elsewhere around the globe.