The problems confronted by most women's theatre in reaching its own constituency and, when desired, gaining a wider hearing have been exacerbated in Spain by the long period of emergence from the Franco dictatorship, with its legacy of oppression. In this article, Maria–José Ragué offers an overview of the subject, outlining the historical context and exploring the work of women playwrights, then looking in particular at women's theatre groups based in Barcelona, at whose university she teaches theatre history. Maria–José Ragué is also a theatre critic and a playwright, having published Clytemnestra and Crits de gavina in Catalan and Gaviotas, lagartijas y mariposa in Spanish. Among her research she has published, in Catalan, The Feminine Characters of Greek Tragedy in Twentieth-Century Catalan Theatre (1990), and, in Spanish, The Feminine Characters of Greek Tragedy in Twentieth-Century Galician Theatre (1991). Her Themes of Greek Tragedy in Spanish Contemporary Theatre is also in print. She is currently completing a book about women and theatre in contemporary Spain, and beginning work on a study of African ritual theatre. Marias-José Ragué was born in Barcelona in 1941, and has always lived in her home town except between 1968 and 1970, when she lived and studied in Berkeley.