WOMEN 1870-1985

In 1870, it was an obvious fact but usually overlooked

until very recently that half the Italian population were
women. Surprisingly, little is known about the position of
women in nineteenth-century Italy. Certainly, they were
less educated than men.

The main job available to middle-class girls was

school teaching, especially at primary level. The majority
of the 45,000 elementary schoolteachers in the early
1870s were women.

Very few other jobs were open to women, except

telegraph-operator, domestic servant and, of course,
prostitute. At the end of 1875 the officially registered
number of prostitutes operating in licensed “houses of
tolerance” was 9,098.

Another obvious grievance was the lack of a vote.

Committees for Female Suffrage existed in all the major
cities, even Naples, by 1906. Although, most women’s
organizations concerned themselves with charitable
works, they also debated political and social issues and
founded national organizations to do so.
 • In 1898 various Radical Feminists formed an
association “For Women”.
• In 1903 came the more respectable National Council
of Italian Women and
• In 1908 founded the Union of Women, which was a
section of Catholic Action.

Radical, Socialist and Catholic Feminists agreed about:

• Opening up the professions
• The vote
• The need for maternity leave
• The need for more factory inspectors
• Closing the brothels and
• Introducing legal investigation for paternity but
In the end they were split on most other family and
educational issues.

However, rapid economic and social change was

helping to emancipate women and give them education
and employment. Middle-class women found new outlets
and satisfactions within the family framework. The “Italian
Lady” was, indeed, invented as an ideal in the years 1914.
Yet even the “Italian Lady” was known to complain at
times. Women were excluded from certain professions like
advocates.
 As jobs became scarcer, more women stayed on at
school or even began to go to university. In the long run
the Fascist regime probably helped female emancipation.
• It mobilized women into public organizations.
• It helped with summer holidays and advice on child-
rearing
• It encouraged female sport in general and women
athletes like Ordina Valle in particular
• It kept girls out of dead-end jobs
• In 1925 it even gave women the vote at local
elections
• It expanded the educational opportunities for women.
This was an apt comment on Fascist male chauvinism.

Another important matter for discuss was the

marriage. The strength and nature of marriage as an
institution was seen clearly in the courts and in the fate of
the various proposals for a divorce law. However, the civil
code proclaimed firmly that “marriage is only dissolved by
the death of one of the spouses”.

In the late 1930s marriage was more popular than

ever, and women were marrying at much the same age-24
years old- as previously. And yet they had fewer children.
The obvious reason is contraception, but most devices
were disliked and few Italians used them. Most couples
relied on coitus interruptus, known as “being careful”
(“stare attenti”). Such was normal sex in the age of the
Dolce Vita. When things went wrong, there was always
abortion. That was illegal until 1978, but it was apparently
widely practiced, usually by doctors or midwives.

In 1985 60% of married women, of childbearing age,

had jobs. This was a real shift in the nature of marriage
and in cultural values, as well as the economy. Since
married women earned their own income, they became
less dependent on their husbands. Women with jobs spent
less time at home, had wider social contacts and, above
all, fewer children.

Finally, the innovations of the 1970s and 1980s- civil

marriage, divorce, legal abortion, reliable contraception,
equality within marriage, and fewer children- were all huge
social changes. But still family life remained important.