Before Victoria De Grazia's book, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945, was released in 1992, the historical conversation on women in Fascist Italy during the interwar period was relatively sparse. De Grazia herself notes her own reluctance to pursue this topic in her book's Preface:
"there was so little work on most aspects of twentieth century Italian social history, and the resources to study women seemed so skimpy and inaccessible, that the problem perforce was set aside. But I resisted approaching the subject as well; for writing about victims is saddening, and I had already dwelt so long and in such detail on the dictatorship's torment of working people" (xiii).
Thankfully, though, De Grazia overcame this resistance by realizing that Italian women were not just victims, but historical actors in society, and her work has proved to be a groundbreaking impetus for further research into this relatively new field of study. This website will outline De Grazia's argument and its implications for historical study.
"there was so little work on most aspects of twentieth century Italian social history, and the resources to study women seemed so skimpy and inaccessible, that the problem perforce was set aside. But I resisted approaching the subject as well; for writing about victims is saddening, and I had already dwelt so long and in such detail on the dictatorship's torment of working people" (xiii).
Thankfully, though, De Grazia overcame this resistance by realizing that Italian women were not just victims, but historical actors in society, and her work has proved to be a groundbreaking impetus for further research into this relatively new field of study. This website will outline De Grazia's argument and its implications for historical study.