Motherhood and Childcare

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the origins of social and health protection for mothers and children in the first half of the twentieth century in Spain, with particular attention to the continuities and ruptures that occurred in the notions, practices and entanglements between the state and the various collective agents involved in these campaigns. The Civil War (1936-1939) and the origins of Francoism provide an opportunity to analyse the transition from a liberal democratic framework to an authoritarian one. In a context of the dismantling of civil society, the Falange Women's Section played an exceptional role as a collaborating agent in the application and dissemination of Franco's welfare provisions. It imposed a model of political discipline and specialised training for visiting nurses and educators that generated dynamics of female professional promotion and left its mark on welfare practices.