La liberación de las oprimidas. El neomalthusianismo y la maternidad consciente en el anarquismo femenino

Abstract

During the 19th century, Malthus’s theory was supported by various sectors of Spanish society, such as the Church and the Bourgeoisie, because this was how they justified the social inequalities of the proletariat. However, starting in the 20th century, Spanish anarchists tried to remedy the population problem through a new Malthusianism that offered other preventive remedies to the working class, such as conscious motherhood classes. Added to the need to reduce the number of births was interest in quality of life. In this study, the theories of Birth Control and Neo-Malthusianism are examined in order to verify the influence they exerted on Spanish anarchism through the historical-educational method. Likewise, a historical review is made by the acratic press of the first decades of the 20th century to publicize the awareness campaigns that were directed towards women in order to achieve women’s liberation through the Belly strike and eugenic discourse, and the slogans of a conscious motherhood are analyzed, which were published, especially, in the journal Free Women. Anarchist women wrote 10 articles out of a total of 305 texts related to conscious motherhood and health problems, knowledge that was very necessary at the time to prevent diseases and reduce infant mortality, but they were not as successful as a sexual reform project.