They were needed to rebuild Spain by creating a race of people aligned with the prevailing Catholic morality of the period.
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.
Feminists never addressed the illegitimate concern of the regime defining womanhood as motherhood during the Francoist period.
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.
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.
[2] 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.
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.
Themes in these works included the marriage market in Spain, and how to navigate it in religious, political and sexual contexts.
[7] 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.
[8] The Blood Revenge law was rescinded in 1963, with husbands and fathers no longer having the right to kill wives or daughters caught engaging in elicit sex acts.
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.
[10] Internal Spanish women migrants found life in Spain difficult during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as Francoist policy dictated they remain in the home.
[9] 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.
[16] The first organization created about women's reproductive health and birth control was opened in Madrid in 1976 by Federico Rubio.
In their reports, single motherhood was identified as a problem, though they noted it was in decline which they attributed in part to the use of the pill and other contraceptives, and to women having abortions in other countries where the practice was legal.
[12] In the period between 1974 and 1978, feminists protested for amnesty for women, including those convicted of abortion, contraception, adultery and prostitution-related offenses who were in prison.
Feminists also held protests in support of the decriminalization of adultery, equality in the workforce, the right to assembly, the ability to strike, and the suppression of images the movement felt were degrading to women.
The law would not change until 1985, when medically induced abortions were allowed if a mother's life was at risk, if the pregnancy was a result of rape, or if the fetus had a deformity.
[19] An amnesty petition for the Bilbao 11 was signed by over 1,300 women, including politicians, singers, artists and journalists who all affirmed that they abortions too.
[16] A law passed on 30 March 1940 meant Republican women could keep their children with them in prison until the child turned three years old.
When children born in prison reached three years of age (which was not common when they intentionally received a hypocaloric diet that caused high mortality), and when there were no relatives who could take care of them, they were "protected" by the Feminine Section of the Falange, and in particular the Patterns of Redemption of Penalties that were in charge of educating the children of the detainees.
[23] In November 1940, the Ministry of the Interior published a decree on war orphans, namely children of parents shot or disappeared (exiles, forgotten in prisons, fugitives and clandestine), according to which only "irreproachable persons from the point of view of religious, ethical and national view" could obtain the guardianship of those children.
[24] The order of instruction made by the Criminal Investigation Court n ° 5 of the Spanish National Audience put the number of children of republican detainees whose identities were supposedly changed in the Civil Registry delivered to families who supported the Francoist regime at 30,960 in the period between 1944 -1954.
[24] In its declaration condemning the Franco dictatorship of the 17 of March 2006 (Recommendation 1736, point 72, 73, 74 and 75), the Council of Europe said that the "lost children" are victims of Francoism, since their "surnames they were modified to allow their adoption by families addicted to the regime".
[28] Mothers on the losing side sometimes had their babies taken from them, with the process being more formalized following the end of the Spanish Civil War and continuing on into the early 1980s.
The purpose of the organization was to legitimize political activity of mothers as being part of the broader efforts of "female consciousness.
They made gender identity based around shared female experiences, the ability to make choices, a social itinerary and constructing their own history separate from motherhood.