Since the beginning of the twentieth century in the Spanish Basque Country, Basque nationalism has served as a unifying movement that encouraged women to participate in women's associations. Women's associations offered a metaspace in which public and private spheres overlap, where, women began to reconstruct meanings of nationalism and gender relations in distinct ways. As a result, the particular foci of these associations reflected each individual association's specific understanding of gender relations and their relations to different interpretations of Basque nationalism. This historical tradition has continued into the twenty-first century as women's associations that are structured by distinct systems of gender relations provide a number of social services and educational services to promote gender equality. Through the examination of the metaspace of the women's association Lanbroa, this article explores the ways in which the women's movement and feminism have influenced the functioning of this association and the ways in which association members contest traditional Basque gender relations.

This article explores the social and historical circumstances that contributed to the institutionalization of the Spanish Basque women's movement and in turn contributed to the development of a particular type of state feminism. In this context, state feminism is defined as the relationship between government political action directed at women through public institutions and the diffusion of the women's movement at the local level. State feminism is examined in relation to systems of gender relations and the division between the public and private domains. The day to day activities of the contemporary women's association, Mother of Alava, illustrates the ways government programs combine wih the mobilization of women at the local level to promote gender equality.