WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN ITALY FROM FASCISM TILL TODAY
Women's rights suffered a setback under the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, with fascist
ideology dictating procreation as a woman's duty .In 1927 the Jewish Women's Union Associzione delle
Donne Ebree d'Italia (ADEI) was established and committed itself to feminism and anti-fascism. The
ADEI was founded by Berta Cammeo Bernstein and Gabriella Falco Ravenna.
A series of laws tried to force Italian women back to their roles of wives and mothers. Any political
activity by women was harshly repressed. In 1930 antifascist activist Camilla Ravera was sentenced to
15 years in prison. The only woman to whom some political prominence was given during the early
Fascist period was Margherita Sarfatti; she was Benito Mussolini's biographer in 1925 as well as one of
his mistresses.
The racial laws of 1938 inflicted another blow to women's empowerment in Italy, since a large
percentage of the few Italian women to have academic positions were of Jewish descent. More than
50,000 women, mostly in their twenties, took part in the Italian resistance movement during the Italian
Civil War, when Italy was under German occupation (1939-1945). Their mass participation increased
the involvement of women in Italian political life.
After World War II, women were given the right to vote in 1946 Italian institutional referendum. The new
Italian Constitution of 1948 affirmed that women had equal rights. It was not however until the 1970s
that women in Italy scored some major achievements with the introduction of laws regulating divorce
(1970), abortion (1978), and the approval in 1975 of the new family code.
Famous women of the period include politicians Nilde Iotti, Tina Anselmi, and Emma Bonino;
actresses Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, and Gina Lollobrigida; soprano Renata Tebaldi; ballet
dancer Carla Fracci; costume designer Milena Canonero; sportwomen Sara Simeoni, Deborah
Compagnoni, Valentina Vezzali, and Federica Pellegrini; writers Natalia Ginzburg, Elsa Morante, Alda
Merini, and Oriana Fallaci; architect Gae Aulenti; scientist and 1986 Nobel Prize winner Rita LeviMontalcini; astrophysicist Margherita Hack; astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti; pharmacologist Elena
Cattaneo; and CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti.
In 2022, Giorgia Meloni became the first female Prime Minister of Italy.
Today, women have the same legal rights as men in Italy, and have mainly the same job, business, and
education opportunities.
By Lia Tedeschi Rizzone and Alessia K. Foresta
Supervised by teachers R. Carbone and J. Magrì
Female standards at work are generally of a high quality and professional, but are not as good as in
education.The probability of a woman getting employed is mainly related to her qualifications, and 80%
of women who graduate from university go on to seek jobs .Women in Italy face a number of
challenges. Although gender roles are not as strict as they have been in the past, sexual and domestic
abuse is still quite prevalent in Italy. On average, women do 3.7 hours more housework than men. Men
make up the majority of the parliament but more than a third of the seats are held by women (around
36%, a higher rate than countries like Netherlands and Germany, as well as the average EU rate),
which makes Italy the eighth country the EU by percentage of women in the national
parliament. Additionally, women in Italy are not adequately represented in the workforce, as Italy has
one of the lowest rates of employment for women of the countries within the European Union.
Women's employment rate (for ages 15–64) is 47.8% (in 2015), compared to 66.5% for men. Many
women are still frequently expected to stay at home and care for the house and children, as opposed to
earning a salary and becoming a breadwinner, and few senior managerial positions are held by women.
Furthermore, there are unequal standards and expectations for the few women who actually make it
into a professional setting. Women cannot be fired because of pregnancy, by law, as on the 26th of
March 2001 the Legislative Decree number 151 was released, to protect pregnant women at work.An
infamous practice in Italy used to be that of "white resignation" (dimissione in bianco), whereby female
employees are asked as condition for their employment or promotion to sign
undated resignation papers, which were kept by the employer who added a date on them when the
woman was pregnant so that she "resigns" at that date. Yet this practice, which is illegal, did not
specifically affect women, as it used to be done for both male and female employers. Italian lawmakers
are working to further protect and support women as they break gender stereotypes and join the
workforce, but complete cultural change is slow. Nevertheless, the proportion of women in the
workforce has increased in recent years: according to World Bank, in 1990 women made up 36.3% of
the labour force, while by 2016 they made up 42.1%.
The Beginning of Women Emancipation
The Consiglio Nazionale delle Donne Italiane was founded in 1903 as part of the International Council of
Women. It aimed to raise awareness about women rights and their safeguarding.
There was no political side: both conservative and socialist women worked towards the same aim. A very
active figure in the early fights for the emancipation of women in Italy was a MD and a pioneering
pedagogue: Maria Montessori. She incited Italian women to get involved in politics, as it had been happening
in the US.
In the meanwhile, in 1907, Ernestina Prola became the first Italian woman to obtain a driving license. In
1908 Emma Strada was the first to get an engineering degree and in 1912, Teresa Labriola was the first to
pass the Bar in Italy. Always in 1912, Argentina Altobelli and Carlotta Chierici were elected to the Higher
Council for Work.
In 1908, the Queen of Italy, Elena, supported the First Congresso delle Donne Italiane, where she gave a
speech. The queen endorsed the creation of a financial support and pension system for women, as well as
pregnancy healthcare.
While Italian women had been fighting to achieve emancipation, the tragedy of the Great War hit the country.
With the men gone fighting, women took over jobs in fields and factories. This made it clear that women
could hold the same working positions as men. Hence, the conversation about universal suffrage became
relevant.
The lower chamber of the Italian Parliament approved women’s right to vote in 1919. However, the law didn’t
pass because the Government fell before the Senate could approve it. The same happened in 1922, the
year of the “Marcia on Rome” by Fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
The Fascist party gave partial voting rights to specific categories of women through the Legge Acerbo. But
not universal women’s suffrage. In fact, only specific categories of women could vote, like those who could
read and write. Other women who could vote included:
The ones who had completed 5th grade
Women who were sole guardians of their children
Women who had lost a son during the First World War
Finally, women who paid at least 30 liras in taxes
If anything, the Fascist Era exacerbated the subordinate social position of women to men. Women were
considered mainly as mothers and wives. And they had one duty: procreating healthy and strong Italian
babies for the regime. Italian women had, all of a sudden, lost most of what they had achieved in the
previous 25 years.
During the war, women became a prominent part of the Italian Resistenza, the anti-Fascist movement that
helped the Allies fight against Mussolini and Hitler. According to data, 75,000 Italian women were part of
the Resistenza’s Defense Groups and 35,000 were active fighters or partigiane.
What happened to Women’s emancipation in Italy after the war?
On the 1st of February 1945, Italian women finally had voting rights. In the same year, women voted for the
first time in the national administrative elections. The first, nationwide occasion when Italian women
exercised their right to vote was the 1946 Referendum to choose between Republic and Monarchy. When,
on the first of January 1948, the Italian Republic’s Constitution was enforced, women finally were guaranteed
equality. At least formally.
The 1950s were pivotal for full emancipation. In fact in 1951, Angela Cigolani became the first Italian woman
to be part of the Government and, famously, the Legge Merlin, which outlawed brothels, was enforced in
1958. In 1959, the Women Italian Police Corp was created. Only two years later, Italian women were allowed
to become diplomats and judges.
So being the 1960s, an age of cultural and social upheaval. But Italy remained on the sidelines of the great
global protests. In Italy, the first modern feminist groups were a result of the 1968’s student movement.
However, it was during the 1970s that women’s movements finally began reaching essential goals for
emancipation. In 1970, divorce became legal. And the Movimento di Liberazione della Donna (MLD) was
born. Its goals included legalizing the pill and abortion, and to let women manage their sexuality and body.
Another goal was the creation of specialized playgrounds for kids after school (doposcuola in Italian), where
children could be left when their mothers worked. Thanks to the work of politician Emma Bonino, abortion
became legal in 1977. Only two years later, Italians achieved legal equality between husband and wife.
In 1981, one of the most obsolete and disturbing tenets of Italy’s family law was finally abolished: we are
talking about the delitto d’onore, or honor killing.
Italian women, at least legally, are today equal to their male counterparts. Yet, there’s still a lot to do. For
example, income equality. Of course, Italian women are emancipated: they are free to vote, they have equal
rights to men, and they can pursue a career. They can be mothers and entrepreneurs.
Yet, so much work still needs to be done, not only when it comes to Women’s emancipation in Italy. But
everywhere around the world. Indeed, it’s a long way ahead.
By Elisabetta Geraci , Federica Veneziano , Leandra La Bella
Supervised By Teachers Rosaria Carbone, Josephine Magrì and Michele Anzalone
Important social changes that began taking place in Italy after World War II gained
momentum with the economic boom of the 1960s. Rigid family relationships were
modified as young people sought a more visible role in society and women called for
greater freedom. But progress in some regions, especially in southern Italy, was slow as
customs and beliefs were strongly resisted.
One such custom, the fuitina, a Sicilian word for ‘elopement’had long been practiced in
the South. A very young couple, often minors, would run away from home for a day or
so without telling anyone where they were going, thus presenting their union as a fait
accompli. The only alternative for saving the girl’s reputation was that the couple enter a
matrimonio riparatore (‘rehabilitating marriage’). Some poorer families who could not
afford dowries for their daughters actively encouraged the fuitina.
It was not rare for the girl to be the unwilling victim in this practice. Her suitor,
frequently an unwanted admirer would kidnap and rape her and then rely on the
matrimonio riparatore to protect him from being convicted of either kidnapping or
rape. This was possible because, under Article 544 of the Criminal Code, which was not
repealed until 1981, sexual violence was considered an offence against morals and not
against the person. To make matters worse, any girl who had suffered the humiliation of
being raped either submitted to this kind of marriage to save her honour and that of her
family or risked remaining an old maid and forever being labelled una donna
svergognata (‘a shameless hussy’). In other words, socially and psychologically, she was
the one to blame for the violence she had suffered.
On Boxing Day 1965, Franca Viola, a beautiful 17-year-old from Alcamo, a small
Sicilian town, was abducted by Filippo Melodia, a local criminal, whose advances
Franca had repeatedly rebuffed. With the help of 12 of his friends, Melodia dragged her
into a car; he drove her to a farmhouse on the outskirts of town where he raped her and
kept her secluded for more than a week.
With incredible courage for those times, when she returned home, she rebelled and told
her father that under no circumstances would she marry Melodia. With the help of her
equally courageous father, Bernardo, her kidnappers were arrested by the local police.
This would cost both Franca and her family dearly. They were intimidated and
ostracised by most of the townspeople, her father received death threats and their barn
and vineyard were burnt to the ground.
During the trial against Melodia, the defence did everything possible to discredit Franca,
alleging she had consented to the elopement, which the judges refused to believe.
Melodia was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, which, on appeal, was reduced to 10
years with a two-year period of compulsory residence in Modena. He finally got out of
prison in 1976 and was killed in April 1978 in a mafia-style execution.
In 1968, Franca married her childhood sweetheart with whom she would later have three
children. Conveying clear messages of solidarity, Giuseppe Saragat, then president of
the Italian Republic, sent the couple a gift on their wedding day. Soon after their
wedding, Pope Paul VI received them in a private audience.
Franca’s story created such a sensation and provoked so much debate throughout Italy
that, in 1970, director Damiano Damiani released a film, The Most Beautiful Wife,
based on it. It starred the 14-year-old Ornella Muti in her first film role and helped turn
Franca into a kind of national feminist icon, a status she never capitalised on.
Franca, now a grandmother, still lives with her family in Alcamo. When asked to
comment on the stance she took in the face of an archaic and intransigent system of
values and behavioural mores, she said, ‘It was not a courageous gesture. I only did what
I felt I had to do, as any other girl would do today, I listened to my heart…’ Listening to
her heart transformed Italian society and liberated other women so they also could
say ‘no’.
By: Felicia Oliveri and
Diana Alistar.
Supervised by teachers: R. Carbone and J. Magr
Comments
Post a Comment