The pillars for a New Spain in the Franco era became national syndicalism and national Catholicism. Following the Civil War, the legal status for women in many cases reverted to the terms of the Napoleonic Code that had first been incorporated into Spanish law in 1889. The post Civil War period saw the return of laws that effectively made wards of women. They were dependent on husbands, fathers and brothers if they wished to work outside the home. It was not until later labor shortages that laws around employment opportunities for women changed. The laws adopted in 1958 and 1961 provided a very narrow opportunity for women to be engaged in non-domestic labor outside the household. In March 1938, Franco suppressed the laws regarding civil matrimony and divorce that had been enacted by the Second Republic. The 1954 Ley de Vagos y Maleante saw further repression directed towards women, specifically those who were lesbians. The law saw many lesbians committed, put into psychiatric institutions and given electroshock treatment.
