It may surprise us to read “men and women” in the previous chapter, since we have not yet focused any attention on women. Nor, of course, did the literary world of nineteenth-century Spain. As Simón Palmer has noted, “Un hecho evidente es que la sociedad española del siglo XIX e incluso de los primeros años del XX, no acepta a la mujer que escribe y lo más que llega es a perdonarla el que haga obras consagradas a temas insustanciales y dentro de la orbita familiar” (“It is evident that Spanish society in the nineteenth century, and even in the first years of the twentieth century, does not accept women who write, and the closest it comes is to forgive her if she writes works on inane matters and within the family órbit”). Women were in general excluded from the theatre, except as actresses, although several did manage to break through the wall of silence which enclosed them to present translated works or, in the second half of the century, original plays to audiences in Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca.

From mid-century on, following in the footsteps of Gómez de Avellaneda, several women dramatists carved out small reputations for themselves in the capital or in the provinces.