Amparo Poch y Gascón

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Amparo Poch y Gascón was a Spanish anarchist, doctor, and activist in the years leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War, was one of the founding members of the Mujeres Libres and was appointed director of social assistance at the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance by Federica Montseny. She was responsible for organizing the Mujeres Libres in Barcelona and used her government position to promote the establishment of liberatorios de prostitución (liberation homes for prostitutes, where prostitutes could receive health care, psychotherapy and professional training to enable them to acquire economic independence through socially acceptable means). While she sought to address the economic conditions that drove women into prostitution, her attitude towards prostitutes was paternalistic, viewing them as individuals to be saved, and this view was reflected in the program of the liberatorios. She worked to promote awareness about women's sexuality and advocated for sexual freedom and against monogamy and the sexual double standard. Unlike her co-founders in the Mujeres Libres, Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Mercedes Comaposada, she had been a member of the reformist treintista CNT before the war. She held a more essentialist view of women's nature, appealing to women as mothers and embracing motherhood as a natural, feminine state. She wrote extensively on the topic of motherhood, promoting an anarchist approach to child rearing.

Dra. Amparo Poch is also a name well known in pacifist circles. During the Spanish Civil War she was active in Orden del Olivo (the order of the olive branch), the Spanish arm of War Resisters' International, and she was a colleague of José Brocca.

A Spanish language biography of Amparo Poch has been written by Antonina Rodrigo (see References below).

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[edit] References

Ackelsberg, Martha A. Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991.
Nash, Mary. Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War. Denver, CO.: Arden Press, 1995.
Spanish text: Antonina Rodrigo: Una Mujer Libre: Amparo Poch y Gascón: Médica Anarquista, Flor del Viento Ediciones, 2002, 300 pages.