Perry Willson - Women in Twentieth-Century Italy

Series editors: Amanda Capern and Louella McCarthy

Ann Taylor Allen
WOMEN IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY EUROPE

Trev Lynn Broughton and Helen Rogers (eds)
GENDER AND FATHERHOOD IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

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WOMEN, CRIME AND JUSTICE IN ENGLAND SINCE 1660

Rachel G. Fuchs and Victoria E. Thompson
WOMEN IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE

Perry Willson
WOMEN IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ITALY

Angela Woollacott
GENDER AND EMPIRE

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WOMEN AND GENDER IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA

William Foster
GENDER, MASTERY AND SLAVERY: FROM EUROPEANS TO ATLANTIC WORLD FRONTIERS

Laurence Lux-Sterritt and Carmen Mangion (eds)
GENDER, CATHOLICISM AND SPIRITUALITY: WOMEN AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN AND EUROPE, 12001900

Perry Willson

Perry Willson 2010

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First published 2010 by
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Printed and bound in China

biennio rosso red two years (191920)

bracciante/i landless farm-labourer(s)

capoccia male head of a peasant household

confino internal exile

consultorio health clinic

differenza sessuale sexual difference

ginnasio middle school

liceo grammar school

madrine di guerra war godmothers (women who corresponded with soldiers as a form of welfare)

maternage mothering

patria nation, motherland

patria potestas fathers authority over children

promessa engagement (literally promise)

reggitrice most powerful female in a peasant household

repubblichini supporters of the Republic of Sal, 19435

ruota wheel (of foundlings home)

sansepolcrista person present at the founding meeting of the Fascist movement in 1919

sifilicomio venereal disease clinic

squadrista Fascist thug during the rise of Fascism

stafetta/e Resistance courier(s)

udina/e member(s) of UDI

uguaglianza equality, sameness

ventennio twenty years (of Fascist rule)

Invaluable in the completion of this book was the help of Lynn Abrams, Stefania Bartoloni, Maria Casalini, Paola Filippucci, Penny Morris, Maura Palazzi, Anna Rossi-Doria, Jane Slaughter and Simonetta Soldani, all of whom most generously read chapters for me and provided many stimulating comments. I am particularly indebted to Lynette McCafferty for her unfailing encouragement and for her helpful comments on the final draft. Thanks are also due to Laura Gasparini of the Biblioteca Panizzi in Reggio Emilia for her kind assistance with the illustrative material. I should also like to acknowledge the assistance of IASH at Edinburgh University and Nuffield College, Oxford, which both offered me study facilities; the staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence; and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which funded some research leave during which much of this was written. Terka Acton, Sonya Barker and Felicity Noble at Palgrave Macmillan all provided speedy and helpful replies to my queries on many occasions. Finally, but far from least important, I would like to thank all my female friends in Italy (and a few males) for many interesting discussions over the years about gender relations both past and present, some of which have found their way into the pages of this book.

, Doing their Duty for Nation (or Church): Mass Mobilisation during the Fascist Ventennio, is partly based on an article by the author entitled Italy which was first published in Kevin Passmore (ed.), Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 19191945 (Manchester University Press and Rutgers University Press, 2003), pp. 1132.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of copyright material in this publication, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

The lives of Italian women were transformed over the course of the twentieth century. Gender disparities in both the public and private spheres diminished, family size grew smaller and female education improved dramatically. Feminist movements of various kinds were active, women voted for the first time and there were important legislative reforms. Womens dreams and aspirations were increasingly fuelled by the printed word and the spread of radio, film and television. Modes of dress and housework were transformed. All such trends, of course, were similarly evident in other European countries in this period but, in Italy, the pattern, timing and speed of gender change were also marked by aspects that were peculiarly Italian. Here, economic growth came later than in northern Europe and, when it did, its dramatic pace produced, in many ways, a society that was a particular mix of modernity and tradition. Moreover, this period of Italian history included two decades of Fascist rule that marked the nation deeply, creating a legacy that was hard to cast aside. The influence of the Catholic Church was matched in few other European countries. Another trend specific to Italy (albeit shared with other southern European nations) is the fact that, despite plummeting birth rates and the introduction of divorce, the institutions of both marriage and the family continued to be cornerstones of society right up to the very end of the century.