Anarchist physician and pacifist who co-founded Mujeres Libres
She co-founded Mujeres Libres in 1936 and, as director of social assistance in Montseny’s health ministry, created the Children’s Homes for war orphans.
A physician and writer born into a military family in Zaragoza who, against her father’s opposition, trained as a teacher and then graduated top of her medical class in 1929. She worked on health education for working-class women and on child health, publishing a Primer of Advice to Mothers in 1931. Moving to Madrid in 1934 she opened a clinic for women and children, and in 1936 she chaired the Spanish section of the War Resisters’ International. That year she co-founded Mujeres Libres, and in 1936–1937 she was director of social assistance in Montseny’s health ministry. Exiled to France in 1939, she treated fellow exiles in Toulouse until her death in 1968.
Activities and affiliations
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1929–1968
Science and technology
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1936–1937
Spanish Republic state institutionsDirector of Social Assistance, Ministry of Health
Government and administration -
1936–
Science and technology
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Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA)
Science and technology
Related historical events
From doctor to working women to Mujeres Libres
She was born in Zaragoza, the eldest daughter of the engineer officer José Poch. Because of her father’s opposition she first attended the Zaragoza teachers’ college (1917–1922), then entered the medical faculty in 1922 and graduated in 1929 with top honours in all 28 subjects; she and one other woman graduated among 97 men, the second woman ever to graduate from the Zaragoza faculty. In several articles she denounced the mockery and contempt men showed learned women. In 1923 she published the partly autobiographical novella Amor, which portrays the impact of the labour movement and anarchist ideas on students.
She opened a practice in her own home, working on disease prevention and health promotion, health-education programmes for working-class women and child health to cut the high infant mortality of the time. In December 1931 she published a Primer of Advice to Mothers on care in pregnancy and nursing. She married in a civil ceremony in 1932, a marriage that soon ended, moved to Madrid in 1934 and in October 1935 opened a clinic for women and children. She supported co-education, and after the Popular Front victory of February 1936 she chaired the Hispanic League against War, the Spanish section of the War Resisters’ International.
In 1936 she founded the magazine and organisation Mujeres Libres with Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Mercedes Comaposada. As director of social assistance in Federica Montseny’s health ministry in 1936–1937 she led the Children’s Homes project, which replaced the old asylums and orphanages with homes for the Republic’s orphans, and organised the evacuation of 500 refugee children to Mexico. Exiled to France in 1939, she practised general medicine and gynaecology in Toulouse, taught the exiled CNT’s correspondence courses and gave medical help for International Antifascist Solidarity (SIA). Diagnosed with brain cancer in 1965, she died in Toulouse on 15 April 1968; more than 200 exiles attended her funeral. After the war her father tried to erase her academic record.