Motherhood in Francoist Spain

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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.