This is a historical and social study, which aimed to describe the main characteristics of the Vargas and Franco dictatorships, and to analyze the implications of these to the institutionalization of nursing in Brazil and Spain. As fonts, it was used written documents located in the historical Brazilian and Spanish archives, in addition to the literature on the subject. Data analysis, supported by concepts of Pierre Bourdieu's World Social Theory, showed that, in Brazil and Spain, in referring to the social division of labor, the meeting point between Church and the State was the seclusion of women in private space. It is concluded that the feminine qualities were capitalized by the nurses to legitimize their actions in public space, even to reproduce in that space, consented to by the State and Church, occupations appropriate to femininity
Nursing; History of Nursing; Brazil; Spain