The image of motherhood in Spain at late 19th century and early 20th century

Abstract

In the last decades of the 19th century the Spanish higienist movement started a campaign to improve the children's higienic conditions similar to those in other occidental countries proposing the necesity of a modern motherhood specifically instructed. The image of this motherhood was presented in well-defined features by the doctors in specialized magazines and handbooks for child care. This study tries to show in an comparative iconographic analysis, the differences and oppositions between the conception and the ideas of this new maternal image and those who persisted in the public opinion.