Women's sexuality in Francoist Spain  Women's sexuality in Francoist Spain was defined by the Church and by the State. The purpose in doing so was to have women serve the state exclusively through reproduction and guarding the morality of the state. Women's sexuality could only be understood through the prism of reproduction and motherhood. Defying this could have tremendous negative consequences for women, including being labeled a prostitute, being removed from her family home, being sent to a concentration camp, a Catholic run institution or to a prison. It was only after the death of Franco in 1975 that women in Spain were finally allowed to define their own sexuality. Understanding Francoist imposed definitions of female sexuality is critical to understanding modern Spanish female sexuality, especially as it relates to macho behavior and women's expected responses to it. Female bodies were stripped of their physicality and the regime did everything in their power to desexualize them. They existed for reproductive purposes. Clothing norms were equally restrictive as they were designed to further emphasize the asexual nature of women. Women were required to dress demurely, with long sleeves or elbow, no necklines, long and loose materials. Women were taught that their role was to belong to one man and one man only. Female virginity became very important, and women who lost their virginity before marriage were considered to have dishonored themselves and their families. They could be kicked out of their homes, be institutionalized, or be forced to take steps to hide evidence of loss of virginity by having clandestine abortions or engaging in infanticide. Lesbians were not recognized, as they challenged the regime narrative that women's sole purpose was to procreate. The regime tried everything they could to render lesbians invisible. Despite this, lesbians created their own underground culture. Hispanic eugenics and pronatalism were viewed as key components of addressing the decline in the Spanish birth rate and the need for an increased population size to serve the needs of the Spanish state during the Francoist period. Policies around this eugenics program involved bans on abortion, infanticide, contraception and information around contraception. This practice was started as policy during the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, discontinued by the Second Republic and then picked up again as a national level policy by Francoists. Anything that was viewed by the state as interfering with women's reproduction activities and increasing the size of the Spanish population size were viewed as being in opposition to the state. All activities that stopped this began to become defined by the regime as crimes. Because of state eugenics policies, women were unable to define their own sexuality in the Francoist period.