Motherhood in Francoist Spain was the definition of being a woman. Motherhood was important to the state because Hispanic eugenics saw women's bodies as state property. They were needed to rebuild Spain by creating a race of people aligned with the prevailing Catholic morality of the period. The regime then created numerous laws to enforce its vision of motherhood. These would not begin to relax until the late 1950s, and only face radical changes in the post-Franco period.
Women's daily lives centered around the home, where they were largely legally confined. This could leave many women socially isolated, especially if they were forced into internal migration as a result of economic reason. Up until at least the late 1960s, domestic life was hard as most households lacked fridges, televisions and cars. Only the death of Franco would see women finally able to socially be free of the household.
Abortion and contraception usage were both illegal. Women who did not want to be mothers who had abortions could be sent to prison, a penalty that continued even into near the end of the socialist transition period.
Many women in prison were also mothers. Most were allowed to keep their children until age three, before the state took custody of them so the children could be properly indoctrinated with statist ideology. Many pregnant women behind bars had their children kidnapped by the state, the names of their children legally changed, and then placed into homes of regime loyalists.
Mothers in exile had the support of Unión de Mujeres Españoles. Feminists never addressed the illegitimate concern of the regime defining womanhood as motherhood during the Francoist period. They only began to challenge this narrative after Franco's death in 1975.
Regime definition and ideological and legal support Hispanic eugenics was pioneered by doctors like Antonio Vallejo Nájera and Gregorio Marañón. Antes que te cases was published by Nájera in 1946, with one part saying, "Racial decadence is the result of many things but the most important is conjugal unhappiness in the most prosperous and happy of homes. ... Eugenic precepts may avoid morbid offspring. ... It is impossible a robust race without a sound preparation of youth for marriage, through Catholic orality. This little work is a minuscule contribution to the exaltation of the Fatherland." Marañón's 1921 Maternidad y feminismo, republished as a second edition in 1951, said, "The difference between the sexes is insurmountable. Such difference emerges from the anatomical surface of each man and woman, and it goes to the deepest, darkest roots of life, to the home of the cells."
Women in Francoist Spain in the immediate post-war period were viewed as essential towards the rebuilding of the country, with their most important aspect being viewed as their bodies. Francoist Spain believed women should become mothers, reproducing to support the needs of the state. They were to give themselves over to this task in both body and soul. A 28 December 1939 decree officially put the Women's Section of Falange in charge of preparing women for their role in the Spanish state as mothers and homemakers.
Motherhood became the primary social function of women in Francoist Spain. Still, while motherhood played this critical societal role it was one the regime only wanted to see perpetuated among those who shared in their political ideology. Children of mothers with leftist or Republican leanings were often removed from their care in order to prevent mothers from sharing their ideology with their offspring.
Dr. Luque was quoted in the SF magazine Y in 1938 as saying, "In the state, the woman/mother has to be the most important citizen. Those are the words that Hitler said in his fundamental program. Because we know he is totally right, and because we are aware of the importance of getting as many healthy children from healthy mothers as we can for our country at this moment, we have to make this statement come true, not only in words but in action."
The state set up a battle between women, by encouraging women to define themselves as mothers and state patriots or as prostitutes who opposed to the state. It was supposed by Pope Pius XII's 1951 direction on the purpose of Christian marriage, which said, "In accordance with the Creator's will, matrimony, as an institution of nature, has not as a primary and intimate end the personal perfection of the married couple but rather the procreation and upbringing of new life. ... One of the fundamental demands of the true moral order is the sincere acceptance of motherhood's function and duties." In the case of Spain, the Franco regime's imperative view was motherhood should only ever occur in the context of marriage.
Regime approved women's instructional manuals during the 1950s and 1960s followed the style of Spanish Baroque conduct manuals. Themes in these works included the marriage market in Spain, and how to navigate it in religious, political and sexual contexts. In their later period, they highlighted the growing gender conflicts in the family.
Single mothers were legally and socially marginalized by the state. This was because the state viewed single mothers as women who had disgraced themselves by having sex outside marriage.
Meaningful legal reforms for women did not begin to happen in the Civil Code until the late 1950s and early 1960s. These changes were a result of pressure by women to make the law more aligned with cultural shifts in attitudes. One such modification happened following a newspaper article by Mercedes Formica about a man who stabbed his wife to death. The modification in the 1889 Civil Code gave greater protections to married women. Other changes in law saw the home being redefined as less a husband's domain but a family domain. Married women were entitled to half a couple's common property, and husbands were required to get their wives' permission before selling women's half. When widowed woman with children remarried, she was now allowed to keep custody of her children in the new marriage. The Blood Revenge law was rescinded in 1963, with husbands and fathers no longer having the right to kill wives or daughters caught engaging in elicit sex acts. A reform in 1970 meant that women could prevent their husbands from putting their children up for adoption without their consent. The law changed in 1972 to give women more freedom from their fathers. It allowed women 22 years old and older to leave the familial home without the consent of their parents. The last major legal reform for women occurred in May 1975, when men were stripped of their automatic head of household status, with women no longer required by law to obey them or be forced to take their husbands' nationality.
Following Franco's death, Spain underwent massive change that culminated in the Constitution of 1978. This document returned Spain to being a country where women were guaranteed full equal rights under the law. Reforms in the post-Francoist period saw the Catholic Church lose official status in government, the age of legal majority moved from 21 to 18, and marriage defining men and women equally. A few years later, in July 1981, divorce was again legal with 260,000 legal separations and 195,000 divorces being processed between 1981 and 1990.
Daily life The 1938 Fuero del Trabajo law imposed upon women the role of housewife, by preventing them from participating in the workforce after they married so as to "liberate married women from the workshops and factories". From 1939 to 1946, there was a monthly allowance of 30 pesetas for families with two children. This allowance increased based on the number of additional children in the household.
Internal Spanish women migrants found life in Spain difficult during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as Francoist policy dictated they remain in the home. Unlike their husbands who could new develop social connections through outside employment, immigrant women were isolated having left behind their previous social support networks. In the Basque country, both Basque and Spanish women in the Basque country would remain socially isolated until the 1970s when younger women began to push their way inside the dominant culture. This included going to bars and restaurants.
In the 1940s, women were barred from a number of professions. These included being a magistrate, diplomat, notary, customs officer, stock broker, and prison doctor. This was because women's primary job was to be a homemaker. Domestic life in Spain in 1960 was different than today. Only 4% of households had fridges, while 1% had televisions and 4% had cars. The death of Franco in 1975 represented for women the start of a double transition, where they suddenly saw political and cultural power as a group that saw massive changes to their daily lives and the country itself transitioned to democracy.
Despite cultural changes brought upon society as a result of the transition to democracy, many Spanish women in the 1990s continued to support the concept that a women's most important role was the one in her home and that the church should play a center role in the most important acts in a woman's life. This belief is manifested in ideas like young women of the period still seeking out Catholic Church weddings, even if they were not practicing Catholics. It also manifested itself with men, in the belief that despite women earning commensurate salaries, men should not be involved with domestic duties like cleaning and taking care of children inside their household.