Prostitution in Francoist Spain was a problem for the regime. The state would create a battle for women's identities by offering only two narratives of womanhood, that of the pious woman or that of the immoral prostitute. Prostitution was a problem for the regime in Francoist Spain โ , given that it had tolerated the practice during the Spanish Civil War , but prostitution was actively opposed by the Catholic Church. During the s, the regime was more tolerant of it and had officially sanctioned brothels to serve the needs of men and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections STIs.
Ignoring the economic realities of the causes of clandestine prostitution, the government of Francisco Franco sought to actively crack down on this underground activity, which largely involved war orphans and women in dire economic situations.
In , the regime's tolerance of prostitution largely ended, as a result of a number of factors: including the joining of international bodies dedicated to stopping the human trafficking of women.
Following Franco's death, prostitutes were one of several groups of women that feminists sought to gain amnesty for. Accusations of prostitution have been used as slanders against women as a form of disempowerment dating back to the Christian Bible. Fascism sometimes supported regulated prostitution. Opposition to prostitution was much more frequent, often because of a belief that legalization of prostitution would result in a surge of men getting sexually transmitted diseases.
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 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.
