Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif Female sexuality during an era of political repression in Spain. A qualitative study on the survivors of Francoism María Toledano-Sierra a , María Dolores Ruiz-Fernández a, ⁎ , José Manuel Hernández-Padilla a,b , José Granero-Molina a,c , María Ángeles Pomares-Callejón a , María del Mar Jiménez-Lasserrotte a , Cayetano Fernández-Sola a,c a Department of Nursing Science, Physiotherapy and Medicine, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain b Adult, Child and Midwifery Department, School of Health and Education, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom c Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Temuco, Chile ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Francoist repression Spanish women Policing of sexuality Memory Sexuality Qualitative research ABSTRACT Sexual repression during Franco's dictatorship in Spain (1939–1975) seriously affected women of the era. The aim of this study was to explore, describe and understand women's experiences regarding sexuality during the era of Francoist repression. A qualitative study was designed based on Gadamer's hermeneutic phenomenology. Ten in-depth interviews and a focus group session with four participants were carried out. All participants were women who had been sexually active during the Franco era. An inductive strategy was used in the data analysis in search of emerging themes. The following themes emerged: 1. ‘The environment of Francoist repression: The regime permeates sexuality’. 2. ‘Repressive practices and heteronormativity: from sexual/reproductive slavery to homophobia’. 3. ‘Sex education: sociocultural consequences of Francoist repression’. Social and political repression have been a heavy burden on Spanish women for decades, imposing upon them a strict morality that profoundly affected their beliefs and dignity as well as their emotional and sexual lives. The long-lasting effects of the historical period in which they lived extend to the present. Women brought up during Francoism, who were not able to change their social attitudes, continue to show rejection of homosexuality or sexual intercourse for pleasure and also have difficulty in re-building their love lives with their partners. Introduction The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines sexual health as the physical, mental and social state of wellbeing in relation to sexuality, including the right for people to have a satisfying and safe sexual life, the capacity to reproduce, and “the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so” (WHO, 2018). The right to sexual health is linked to the cultural (Ditchman, Easton, Batchos, Rafajko, & Shah, 2017), social and political environment in which individuals and families live (Hadi, 2017). Moreover, sexuality is conditioned by the sex education a person receives throughout their life (Bejarano & García, 2016). Therefore, in order to understand a person's sexuality, one must understand the social and historical context in which they have lived (Weeks, 1998). It is well-known that the socio-historical reality influences a society's cul- ture (Valiente, 2017). Although sexuality is strictly related to one's private life, political repression has had a strong impact on the exercise of sexual rights (Jerez-Farrán, 2014). In the 20th century in Europe, sexuality was consolidated as an axis of individual identity and public debate although authoritarian regimes manipulated desire and pleasure to their advantage (Solé & Díaz, 2014). Immersed in a patriarchal context, women gained control of their sexual and reproductive lives (Harris, 2013) although in Spain they were conditioned by economic development and the political-religious situation after the Civil War. Along with this, the coercive persuasion of a gender culture that linked female submission to the honor of the fa- mily (Gengler, Alkazemi, & Alsharekh, 2018), resulted in submissive behaviour which was extended to their sexual lives (Escudero Nafs, Polo Usaola, López Gironés, & Aguilar Redo, 2005). Europe was marked by two major wars. The Second World War (1939–1945) heralded the triumph over Fascism and Nazism, leading the way to the Cold War and the emergence of the Communism and Capitalism blocs (Judt, 2013). In Spain, an ideological war was estab- lished between the two sides (Osborne, 2009). The sociological right supported the regime, and, after the right was victorious in the Civil War, society became the largest area for repression of the Republican survivors who had not been exiled or imprisoned. Republican women, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2020.102343 Received 30 April 2019; Received in revised form 13 November 2019; Accepted 29 January 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author at: University of Almeria. s/n, Sacramento Road, 04120 La Cañada, Almería, Spain. E-mail address: mrf757@ual.es (M.D. Ruiz-Fernández). Women's Studies International Forum 79 (2020) 102343 0277-5395/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T