Perry Willson - Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: The Massaie Rurali

Peasant women were the largest female occupational group in Italy between the wars. They led lives characterized by great poverty and heavy workloads but fascist propaganda extolled them as the mothers of the nation and the guardians of the rural world, the most praiseworthy of Italian women.

This study is the first published history of the Massaie Rurali, the Fascist Partys section for peasant women, which, with three million members by 1943, became one of the largest of the regimes mass mobilizing organizations. The section played a key role in such core fascist campaigns as nation-building and ruralization. Perry Willson draws on a wide range of archival and contemporary press sources to investigate the nature of the Massaie Rurali and the dynamics of class and gender that lay at its heart. She explores the organizations political message, its propaganda, structure and activities and the reasons why so many women joined it.

Perry Willson is Lecturer in Italian History at the University of Edinburgh. Her previous publications include The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy (Oxford 1993) and numerous articles on modern Italian womens history.

First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.

2002 Perry Willson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Willson, Perry R.
Peasant women and politics in Fascist Italy: the Massaie rurali section of the PNF / Perry Willson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. Women peasants Italy Political activity History 20th century. 2. Fascism and women Italy History 20th century. 3. Partito nazionale fascista (Italy). Sezione Massaie rurali History. I. Title.
HQ1236.5.I8 W54 2002
324.24502 dc21 2002074322

ISBN 0-203-45168-6 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-45775-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0415291704 (hbk)
ISBN 0415291712 (pbk)

I owe thanks to many people who gave me invaluable assistance of various kinds during the preparation of this book. In particular I would like to thank, in Italy, Giusi Archetti, Stefania Bartoloni, Annarita Buttafuoco, Olga Cernezzi, Dinora Corsi, Giovanni Focardi, Rosetta Martellacci, Maura Palazzi, Maria Rosaria Porcaro, Anna Rossi Doria, Silvia Salvatici and Massimo Storchi and, in Britain, Lynn Abrams, Frances Dow, Elizabeth Harvey, Lynette McCafferty, Claudia Nocentini, John Pollard, Sian Reynolds, Anthea Taylor and Jon Usher. I am also indebted to Carlo Fiorentino at the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome; the librarian at the Societ Agraria di Lombardia; the staff of the Archivi di Stato in Leghorn, Treviso, Arezzo and Reggio Emilia; Christiane, administrator of La Fonte Merivigliosa Cultural Centre in Rome (former SantAlessio College); the staff of the Sala Riservata in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence; the staff of the Biblioteca Panizzi in Reggio Emilia and of the Biblioteca Alessandrina in Rome. I should also like to take this opportunity to thank the British Academy for funding for research trips to Italy, the Arts and Humanities Research Board for awarding me special leave to write up my work and the Institute for the Advanced Study of the Humanities (Edinburgh University) for the use of their excellent study facilities. I acknowledge the permission of the Archivio Centrale dello Stato to publish Plates 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 (ACS authorization number 346), Fratelli Alinari for the cover picture and Plate 8 and the Biblioteca Panizzi (Reggio Emilia) for Plate 10. Plate 1 appears by kind permission of Olga Cernezzi. All translations are my own.

While every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge ownership of copyright material used within this volume, the publishers will be glad to make suitable arrangements with any copyright holders whom it has not been possible to contact.

Almanacco Almanacco della donna italiana

AMR Lazione delle massaie rurali

Bullettino Bullettino dellagricoltura: Giornale della Societ agraria Lombarda

DF La donna fascista

DR Domus rustica

DRu La donna rurale

DC La donna nei campi

Giornale Il giornale della donna

LAF Il lavoro agricolo fascista

MR La massaia rurale

RR Radio rurale

b. busta

fasc. fascicolo

sf. sottofascicolo

FD foglio di disposizioni

FO foglio dordini
(NB The FDs and the FOs were the sheets of directives and orders sent out by the PNF Secretary to local Party Federations. The numbering of the sheets started from scratch each time a new Party Secretary was appointed.)