Male allies of women's movements: Women's organizing within the Catholic Church in Franco's Spain

Scholarship proposes that allies of social movements are usually collective actors, and movements frequently pay a price for their reliance on allies: moderation. This article investigates the impact of allies on social movements by analyzing the feminist protest within the Catholic Church in Franco's Spain and its male allies. Drawing on published documents and twenty-four interviews, I find that individuals can function as allies for movements. In addition, allies may predispose activists towards moderation in some domains but not necessarily in others. Moreover, allies may themselves be more radical than activists in some regards and thus have the potential to radicalize protests.