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.