How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945
Victoria De Grazia opens this book by describing the common
characteristics of Italian Fascist politics toward women, which were
three-fold: antifeminist zeal, laws regulating women to the home, and a public
cult of motherhood in the name of building national-state power. In her research, De Grazia recognized that
the traditional way of looking at these politics resigns the Italian woman’s
experience to the realm of victimhood.
Instead of following this well-worn path, De Grazia decided to tackle
three particular goals in the argument of How
Fascism Ruled Women. She aimed to
explore the experience of women under Mussolini’s dictatorship, to study the creation
and impact of fascist sexual politics in the light of broader changes in
Italian society during the first part of the twentieth century, and through
comparisons with other European nations to highlight how a Fascist regime
handled the entry of women into the age of mass politics after World War
I. The book has a unique, original
focus, and is intended to jump-start further research in the field of women’s
history in Fascist Italy. De Grazia says
that she was inspired by her colleagues “to treat Italian women not just as
victims of dictatorship and patriarchy, but as historical subjects and actors,
whose experience of fascist rule was enormously varied and might be explored in
ways she had never before considered.”
De Grazia begins the main portion of her book by referencing a theme that will continually reassert itself throughout her argument, the idea of the fascist state’s struggle to modernize and yet to retain traditional structures of authority. Mussolini’s aims were to keep women in the home, to make procreation their primary goal in life, and to restore patriarchal authority by “defining the rights and duties of Italian women in relation to the nation state.” This involved the nationalization of women through special political organizations, which included ONMI, an agency which oversaw maternal and infant welfare. De Grazia goes on to describe continual encroachments on women's rights by the fascist government, like the Ascension Day Speech, in which Mussolini cemented the official role of women as reproducers.
However, in the midst of this discussion about fascist control of female life, De Grazia recognizes a vital theme that will reoccur throughout this book, that “Italian women were not passive subjects, much less hapless victims, of the dictatorship. They were protagonists; they made choices… how fascism ruled Italian women is also the story of how Italian women experienced fascist rule. At one level the ways in which Italian women related to their families, to their society, and to each other were the outcome of the myriad policies which shaped family planning, the labor market, educational opportunities, and public attitudes. At another level, they were the result of women’s own actions: in particular, how they responded collectively and individually to enticing new habits of mass consumption, to changing standards of family and child care, and to the novel occasions of sociability offered by the fascist auxiliaries, as well as by Catholic women’s groups, informal neighborhood networks, and the several surviving feminist clubs.”
De Grazia begins the main portion of her book by referencing a theme that will continually reassert itself throughout her argument, the idea of the fascist state’s struggle to modernize and yet to retain traditional structures of authority. Mussolini’s aims were to keep women in the home, to make procreation their primary goal in life, and to restore patriarchal authority by “defining the rights and duties of Italian women in relation to the nation state.” This involved the nationalization of women through special political organizations, which included ONMI, an agency which oversaw maternal and infant welfare. De Grazia goes on to describe continual encroachments on women's rights by the fascist government, like the Ascension Day Speech, in which Mussolini cemented the official role of women as reproducers.
However, in the midst of this discussion about fascist control of female life, De Grazia recognizes a vital theme that will reoccur throughout this book, that “Italian women were not passive subjects, much less hapless victims, of the dictatorship. They were protagonists; they made choices… how fascism ruled Italian women is also the story of how Italian women experienced fascist rule. At one level the ways in which Italian women related to their families, to their society, and to each other were the outcome of the myriad policies which shaped family planning, the labor market, educational opportunities, and public attitudes. At another level, they were the result of women’s own actions: in particular, how they responded collectively and individually to enticing new habits of mass consumption, to changing standards of family and child care, and to the novel occasions of sociability offered by the fascist auxiliaries, as well as by Catholic women’s groups, informal neighborhood networks, and the several surviving feminist clubs.”