Unravelling the Political Economy of Social Policy Formation: The Spanish Compulsory Maternity Leave, 1900-1936

Abstract

Maternity leave developed as part of the health insurance systems during the formation of most European welfare states, emerging as the first work-family policy. Although its expansion benefited from an ideological enhancement of maternity’s societal role, cross-country differences arose depending on distributive conflicts between social groups. Nevertheless, the political economy of such a policy has not been fully explored yet.This paper focuses on the Spanish case. Implemented in 1931 after more than thirty years of debates, compulsory maternity leave became the second Spanish compulsory social insurance. Throughout this process, controversies between the labour movement, employers, doctors and women’s movements were determinant in shaping and delaying the scheme’s development. The study analyses the debates between those groups during
the first third of the twentieth century and finds evidence of the different models in place, as well as significant intra-group cleavages based on ideology, class composition and sectorial and regional variance.