Motherhood and Childcare Agents in the Francoist “Social State”

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Published: Apr 15, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/historein.32598
Keywords:
Spain; Spanish civil war Francosim Falange Women’s Section childcare motherhood social assistance
María Ángela Cenarro Lagunas
University of Zaragoza
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6574-7303
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.

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Author Biography
María Ángela Cenarro Lagunas, University of Zaragoza

Ángela Cenarro is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Zaragoza. She started her career with the research on the impact of the political violence of the Civil War in the construction of Franco’s dictatorship, with works such as El pasado oculto: Fascismo y violencia en Aragón (1936–1939) (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1992), Cruzados y camisas azules: Los orígenes del franquismo en Aragón, 1936–1945 (Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 1997) and lately the co-edition of Pagar las culpas: La represión económica en Aragón, 1936–1945 (Barcelona: Crítica, 2014). In recent years her work has been focused on social policies and the history of women and gender in the Spanish twentieth century. Among the main results are the books La sonrisa de Falange: Auxilio Social en la guerra civil y la posguerra (Barcelona: Crítica, 2006), Los niños del Auxilio Social (Madrid: Espasa, 2009) and the co-edition of the volumes Feminismos: Contribuciones desde la historia (Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2014) and Mujeres, género y violencia en la Guerra Civil y la Dictadura de Franco (Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch, 2021).

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