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Italian Fascism and the Political Mobilisation of Working-Class Women 1937–43

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2012

PERRY WILLSON
PERRY WILLSON*
Affiliation:
History Programme, School of Humanities, University of Dundee, 149 Nethergate, DundeeDD1 4HN; p.r.willson@dundee.ac.uk
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Abstract

The Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio dei Fasci Femminili (Section of the Fascist Women's Groups for Female Workers and Outworkers) is the only one of the three Italian Fascist Party organisations for adult women that has never been studied. Founded in 1937 and recruiting factory workers, outworkers and domestic servants, it achieved a membership of almost a million by the fall of the regime in 1943. A top-down organisation, run by the largely middle-class Fasci Femminili, it offered its membership a mix of social, educational and professional opportunities. This article explores its activities, its organisational structure, the messages it attempted to convey to its membership and the reasons why such large numbers of women joined.

Le fascisme italien et la mobilisation politique des ouvrières 1937–43

La Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio dei Fasci Femminili (section du groupe des femmes fascistes pour les ouvrières et les femmes travaillant à domicile), à la différence des deux autres organisations du parti fasciste italien réservées aux femmes adultes, n'a jamais été étudiée. Fondée en 1937, elle enrôlait les ouvrières d'usine, les femmes travaillant à domicile, et les femmes domestiques. A la chute du régime en 1943 elle comptait presque un million d'adhérentes. Gérée de haut en bas par les Fasci Femminili bourgeoises, la Sezione offrait un mélange d'activités sociales, éducatives et professionnelles. Cet article examine la structure de l'organisation, son programme, et les principes qu'elle communiquait aux adhérentes, et cherche à expliquer le succès de son recrutement.

Der italienische faschismus und die politische mobilisierung von frauen aus der arbeiterklasse in den jahren 1937–43

Die Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio dei Fasci Femminili (Abteilung für Arbeiterinnen und Heimarbeiterinnen des faschistischen Frauenbunds) ist die einzige der drei faschistische Parteiorganisationen für erwachsene Frauen in Italien, die von der Forschung bisher noch nicht eingehend untersucht wurde. Die 1937 gegründete Abteilung versuchte Fabrikarbeiterinnen, Heimarbeiterinnen und weibliches Hauspersonal für einen Beitritt zu gewinnen und erreichte bis zum Sturz des Regimes im Jahr 1943 Mitgliederzahlen in Höhe von fast einer Million. Als hierarchisch von oben strukturierte Organisation, die von den weitgehend bürgerlichen Fasci Femminili geleitet wurde, bot sie ihren Mitgliedern eine Mischung aus sozialen, bildungsorientierten und beruflichen Möglichkeiten. Dieser Aufsatz befasst sich mit den Aktivitäten und der Organisationsstruktur der Abteilung und untersucht, welche Botschaften sie ihren Mitgliedern zu vermitteln versuchte und warum so viele Frauen sich zum Beitritt entschlossen.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 65 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 On the Fasci Femminili, see Willson, Perry, ‘Italy’ in Passmore, Kevin, ed., Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe 1919–1945 (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2003)Google Scholar; Dittrich-Johansen, Helga, Le ‘militi dell'idea’: Storia delle organizzazioni femminili del Partito Nazionale Fascista (Florence: Olschki, 2002)Google Scholar. On early fascist women, see Detragiache, Denise, ‘Il fascismo femminile da San Sepolcro all'affare Matteotti (1919–1925)’, Storia contemporanea, 14 (1983), 211–51Google Scholar; Bartoloni, Stefania, ‘Dalla crisi del movimento delle donne alle origini del fascismo. L'“Almanacco della donna italiana” e la “Rassegna femminile italiana”’, in Crispino, A., ed., Esperienza storica femminile nell'età moderna e contemporanea (Rome: UDI, 1988)Google Scholar. There are also some local studies. See, e.g., Angelini, Claudia Bassi, Le ‘signore del fascio’: L'associazionismo femminile fascista nel Ravennate (1919–1945) (Ravenna: Longo, 2008)Google Scholar; Follacchio, Sara, Il Fascismo Femminile nel Pescarese, special issue of Abruzzo contemporanea, 13 (2001)Google Scholar.

2 On the Massaie Rurali, see Willson, Perry, Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: the Massaie Rurali (London: Routledge, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See Foglio di Disposizioni (hereafter FD) 850, 28 Oct. 1937.

4 The only published historical work to date on SOLD is Willson, Perry, ‘Sezione operaie e lavoranti a domicilio’ in de Grazia, Victoria and Luzzatto, Sergio, eds, Dizionario del fascismo, II (Turin: Einaudi, 2003), 623–4Google Scholar. One reason for the neglect of this topic may be the fact that no single archive remains for it. This article is based on some rather fragmentary documentation pieced together from various different PNF archives and press sources.

5 On broad developments in women's political role, see Willson, Perry, Women in Twentieth-Century Italy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 One of the most vociferous critics of such cultural readings has been Bosworth, Richard. See, for example, his Mussolini's Italy, Life under the Dictatorship 1915–1945 (London: Allen Lane, 2005)Google Scholar. See also the work of Corner, Paul, e.g. ‘Fascist Italy in the 1930s: Popular Opinion in the Provinces’, in Corner, , ed., Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes: Fascism, Nazism, Communism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.

7 ‘Regolamento delle Sezioni Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio’, Lavoro e famiglia (hereafter LF), 1, 1 (March 1938), 1.

8 Ibid.

9 PNF, Fasci Femminili, Sezione Massaie Rurali, Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio. Regolamenti (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, 1939–40), 20.

10 Circ. 657A, 30 Aug. XVI, Atti del PNF, 3 (1937–8).

11 Circ. Prot 22/378 OLD, 12 July XVIII, Atti del PNF, 3 (1939–40).

12 On women's employment under Fascism, see Willson, Perry, The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993)Google Scholar; de Grazia, Victoria, How Fascism Ruled Women, Italy 1922–1945 (Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford: University of California Press, 1992), ch.6Google Scholar.

13 See Ferrazza, Paola, ‘La mobilitazione civile in Italia 1940–1943’, Italia contemporanea, 214 (1999), 21–42Google Scholar.

14 On numbers of servants under Fascism, see Sarti, Raffaella, ‘La domesticité en Italie durant la période du fascisme (1922–1943)’, Sextant, 15–16 (2001), 174–5Google Scholar.

15 Report by Elisa Majer Rizzioli, dated 23 Dec. 1925. This information comes under the heading ‘Ispettorato fasci femminili. Iniziative sospese’. ACS, SPD-CO (Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Segretaria Particolare del Duce-Carteggio Ordinario) 509.006 ‘Fasci Femminili – Varie’.

16 See Foglio d'Ordini, 94, 8 June 1932.

17 FD 698, 18 Dec. 1936.

18 FD 974, 5 Feb. 1938.

19 The exact figure between 6 and 12 lire was chosen according to the financial needs of local federations. A sliding scale could also be used for poorer members. (Figures from PNF Circ. 586A, 18 Nov. XVI, Allegato A, Atti del PNF, 3 (1937–1938).) Of these sums the central party authorities kept 3 lire for the FF and 1.50 for SOLD, which meant that provincial federations were always working on a limited budget.

20 ‘Emma’ (Margherita Armani), ‘L'altoparlante’, LF, 2, 2 (Feb. 1939), 4.

21 PNF, Agenda Annuario Anno XX (1941–1942) (Rome, 1941), 252.

22 This was the price at La Rinascente department store in Rome. (Appunto per la ragioneria del direttorio (fattura sig.na Angela Fianchini), 16.10.1941, ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII (Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio Nazionale, Servizi Vari, Serie II), b.94.)

23 Alba Pochino, ‘Il Fazzoletto Distintivo’, LF, 1, 2 (April 1938). A photograph of a woman demonstrating how to wear the kerchief appeared in LF, 1, 1 (March 1938), 4.

24 For a picture of the badge, see Pericoli, Ugo, Le divise del Duce: tutte le divise e i distintivi del fascismo (Parma: Albertelli, 2010; Ist edn, 1983), 166Google Scholar.

25 ‘Regolamento delle Sezioni Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio’, LF, 1, 1 (March 1938), 1.

26 Promemoria by Clara Franceschini and ‘Camerata del Latte’, 21 March 1938, to Giovanni Marinelli, Segretario Amministrativo del PNF. ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.405, fasc.64/F, ‘Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio’. Another letter conserved in this same file states that this phenomenon had been identified in recent inspections in Aosta, Asti and Novara.

27 Circolare 591A 29 Nov. XVI, Atti del PNF, 3 (1937–8).

28 Anon, , ‘Il Segretario del partito presiede la consulta centrale dei fasci femminili’, La donna fascista, 5, 30 Dec. 1941, 2Google Scholar.

29 Lists of courses appear in many issues of LF. See, for example, ‘Notiziario dei FF’, LF, 1, 4 (June 1938), 4.

30 Anon, , ‘Le assistenti sociali e l'attuazione di una pratica fraternità’, LF, 1, 6 (Aug. 1938), 3Google Scholar. Some historians have confused these figures with the ‘Fascist home visitors’. They were, however, quite distinct as the latter were unpaid volunteers involved in party welfare, who visited poor families to dispense advice on things such as hygiene, housework and moral issues, as well as referring families on to other sources of help.

31 On this school, see Anon, , ‘Le tre scuole superiori femminili del Partito Nazionale Fascista’, Giornale della donna, 1 Oct. 1933, 2–3Google Scholar; C.C., ‘Come si preparano le assistenti sociali’, LF, 1, 9 (Nov. 1938), 3.

32 On factory social workers, see Willson, The Clockwork Factory, 167–70; Tarugi, Lia, ‘Assistenza sociale fascista di fabbrica’, L'assistenza sociale nell'industria, 4 (1930), 91Google Scholar; Mangano, Lori, ‘La sorella spirituale dell'operaio: L'assistente di fabbrica’, La donna fascista, 30 March 1941, 11Google Scholar.

33 r.f.d. (probably del Latte, Rachele Ferrari), ‘Una grande prova del lavoro femminile’, LF, 2, 10 (Oct. 1939), 1Google Scholar.

34 FD 135, 18 June 1941.

35 ‘Concorso a premi tra le nostre lettrici’, LF, 2, 8 (Aug. 1939), 2.

36 ‘Il Concorso Proles’, LF, 2, 11 (Nov. 1939), 1.

37 ‘Cronache e notizie’, LF, 3, 2 (Feb. 1940), 4.

38 The dog hair competition was held in Cuneo. ‘Fatti e notizie’, LF, 4, 12 (Oct. 1941), 4.

39 ‘Fatti e notizie’, LF, 4, 10 (Aug. 1941), 4.

40 ‘Fatti e notizie’, LF, 4, 9 (July 1941), 4.

41 R.F., ‘Giornate serene per le nostre operaie’, La donna fascista, 30 Aug. 1941, 5. See also LF, 4, 11 (Sept. 1941), 3, 4, for two accounts written by SOLD members.

42 FD 248, 7 Dec. 1941.

43 Prenassi, Carla Moroni, Il Duce per le Operaie (Varese: Federazione FF-SOLD, 1942), 18Google Scholar.

44 FD 1407, 13 Sept. 1939.

45 L.B., ‘Il Partito per le lavoranti a domicilio’, La donna fascista, 30 June 1942, 3.

46 ‘Notiziario dei FF’, LF, 1, 9 (Nov. 1938), 1.

47 ‘Cronache e notizie’, LF, 5, 8 (June 1942), 4.

48 On Necchi, see ‘Pavia Ditta Necchi, Vittorio e moglie Lina’, ACS, SPD-CO, 11.451; Anon, ‘Industrie in linea per la battaglia economica’, La donna fascista, 1 Sept. 1937.

49 LF, 3, 3 (March 1940), 1.

50 Anon, ‘Fatti e notizie’, LF, 5, 4 (Feb. 1942), 4.

51 ‘Cronache e notizie’, LF, 6, 5 (March 1943), 4.

52 On the unions in this period, see, for example, Gagliardi, Alessio, Il corporativismo fascista (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2010), 125–36Google Scholar.

53 FD 1148, 8 Sept. 1938.

54 FD 55, 30 Jan. 1941.

55 FD 118, 20 May 1941.

56 On the wartime workshops, see Pisa, Beatrice, ‘La questione del vestiario militare fra mobilitazione civile e strategie logistiche’, in Staderini, A., Zani, L. and Magni, F., eds, La Grande guerra e il fronte interno: Studi in onore di George Mosse (Camerino: Università degli studi, 1998)Google Scholar; Pisa, Beatrice, ‘Una azienda di Stato a domicilio: la confezione di indumenti militari durante la grande guerra’, Storia contemporanea, 20 (1989), 953–1006Google Scholar.

57 Appunto per l'On. Direzione Generale dell'Amministrazione Civile, 3 March 1923, ACS, SPD-CO, 1762 ‘Reggio Emilia Fascio femminile’.

58 A table showing the numbers of workshops per province, dated 5 March 1937, can be found in ACS, PNF, DG, SV, SII, b.405, fasc. ‘Laboratori femminili’.

59 Letter from Bruno Mazzaggio (Segretario Federale di Vicenza) to Giovanni Marinelli (Segretario Amministrativo del PNF), 6 Feb. 1937, in ibid.

60 See, for example, ACS, PNF, SPEP (Situazione Politica ed Economica delle Provincie), b.14, fasc. ‘Pescara’, s.f. ‘Pescara Ispezioni Amministrative, Ispezione 8 luglio 1941’.

61 See FD 1081, 5 June 1938; FD 1104, 28 June 1938. On social insurance under Fascism, see Bronzini, Giuseppe, ‘Legislazione sociale e istituzioni corporative’, Annali Feltrinelli, 20 (1981), 315–27Google Scholar.

62 See FD 62, 18 Feb. 1941. See also, ‘Vita del partito: Operaie e lavoranti a domicilio’, La donna fascista, 25 Feb. 1938, 1.

63 ‘Avviamento al lavoro delle addette ai servizi familiari’, Circolare del Segretario del PNF alle Fiduciarie FF, Circ Prot 10/507, 17 Aug. XIX, Atti del PNF, 3 (1940–1).

64 See, for example, FD 92, 28 July 1942; E.M.O., ‘La S.O.L.D. per le operaie: Mense operaie federali obbligatorie’, A Nessuno Seconde: Donne bergamasche in linea!, 1 Feb. 1943, 1.

65 FD 1436, 16 Oct. 1939. See also ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.264, fasc. ‘Organizzazioni femminili: Massaie rurali’, s.f. ‘Corso di aggiornamento per le segretarie di sezione di fascio delle operaie e lavoranti a domicilio’; Anon, , ‘Il Corso practico dimostrativo indetto dal P. N. F. per le segretarie provinciali delle Sezioni operaie e lavoranti a domicilio’, LF, 1, 6 (Aug. 1938), 3.Google Scholar

66 See, for example, the account of the course held in Calabria, Reggio, in ‘Notiziario dei FF’, LF, 1, 8 (Oct. 1938), 1Google Scholar.

67 FD 59, 9 Feb. 1941.

68 This information is taken from forms (one in the folder for each province) issued by the PNF Ufficio Disciplina in 1940, conserved in ACS, PNF, SPEP, alphabetically ordered in 28 boxes.

69 See, for example, Article 5 of the FF Regulations of 1939–40 which listed 19 different female hierarchical roles below the provincial fiduciary, even though, at this stage, the capi nuclei SOLD did not yet exist. (PNF, Fasci Femminili . . . Regolamenti, 6.)

70 ‘Attività delle Capo Nucleo e delle Capo Settore’. Report for the Ispettrice di Zona Bartoli Gina, Federazione dei FF, Gruppo Rionale N.Giovannucci, 30 Oct. 1941. Archivio di Stato di Livorno, b.58 Federazione dei FF. Cartelle personali, fogli informativi, nomine e dispense di Fiduciarie e Collaboratrici, tessere ecc. anche del fascio di Castiglioncello. 1927–43, fasc.: ‘Federazione FF Livorno. Nomine e dispense di Fiduciarie e collaboratrici 1937–42’, s.f. ‘Nomine a Collaboratrice 1942’.

71 PNF, Fasci Femminili . . . Regolamenti, 21–2.

72 Ibid, 21.

73 ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.10, fasc. ‘Clara Franceschini’.

74 FD 182, 23 Aug. 1940.

75 Garibaldi, Luciano, Le soldatesse di Mussolini (Milan: Mursia, 1995), 14Google Scholar.

76 FD 246, 6 Dec. 1941; ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.11, fasc. ‘Eramo Gozzi, Lina’; ‘Situazione gerarchica’; ACS, PNF SPEP, b.4, fasc. ‘Mantova’; SPD-CO 524.215 ‘Mantova colonie Marine e Montane’.

77 Santucci, M. F., ‘Assistenza sociale e SOLD’, LF, 6, 5 (March 1943), 3Google Scholar.

78 On the regional distribution of Massaie Rurali membership, see Willson, Peasant Women, ch. 9.

79 ‘Graduatorio del tesseramento operaie e lavoranti a domicilio anno XVI’, FD 1204, 3 Dec. 1938.

80 ‘Prospetti delle tessere e marche di convalida e distintivi del PNF da 29 ott al 25 luglio 1943’, ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.556.

81 The 1938–42 data is from official membership figures published in FO 215, 28 Oct. 1938; FO 244, 28 Oct. 1939; FO 264, 28 Oct. 1940; FO 276, 28 Oct. 1941; FO 285, 28 Oct. 1942. Although these are official figures I feel confident that they are generally accurate: where they can be cross-checked from more confidential archive documents, they match exactly or differ only marginally. See, for example, the accounts sheets for Lavoro e famiglia for 1940–2 in ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.306, fasc. ‘Lavoro e famiglia’. The 1943 figure for SOLD is from ‘Prospetti delle tessere e marche di convalida e distintivi del PNF da 29 ott al 25 luglio 1943’, ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b.556. I have calculated this figure by adding the number of cards renewed from 1941–2 for the following year by stamping them (840,122) to the number of new cards issued (156,813). The 1943 FF figure is from FO 293, 25 June 1943.

82 Unsigned report on ‘Situazione politica’ for ‘Fascist year XVII’, 10–11, dated 19 Nov. 1939, ACS, PNF, SPEP, b.5, fasc. ‘Messina’. Earlier reports in this file, however, suggest little activity in the Messina FF.

83 FD 1107, 1 July 1938.

84 Report by Elisa Majer Rizzioli, 23 Dec. 1925, ACS, SPD-CO 509.006 ‘Fasci Femminili – Varie’.

85 FD 1329bis, 23 May 1939.

86 On her, see Willson, Perry, ‘“The Fairytale Witch”: Laura Marani Argnani and the Women's Fasci of Reggio Emilia 1929–1940’, Contemporary European History, 15, 1 (2006), 23–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 Federazione FF di Reggio nell'Emilia, Relazione delle attività: 2o Semestre a.XVII E.F. (Reggio Emilia: PNF, 1939), 14Google Scholar.

88 This leaflet is enclosed with a letter from Ferdinando Bresegni to Achille Starace, 23 April 1938, ACS, PNF, SPEP, b.11, fasc. ‘Padova’.

89 Clause XXI promised that: ‘The benefits and discipline of having a collective contract are extended also to outworkers. Special rules will be issued by the State to ensure proper hygienic conditions for home labour.’ On Fascist legislation and outworkers, see Vittoria Ballestrero, Maria, Dalla tutela alla parità: La legislazione italiana sul lavoro delle donne (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1979), 75–81Google Scholar.

90 Lenzi, Aurora, ‘È possibile il contratto di lavoro per le addette al servizio domestico?’, LF, 3, 10 (Oct. 1940), 4Google Scholar.

91 Anon, , ‘Mariella Tabellini. Littrice’, LF, 4, 6 (April 1941), 3Google Scholar.

92 Tabellini, Mariella, ‘Aspetti sociali ed economici del lavoro a domicilio’, LF, 4, 3 (Jan. 1941), 3Google Scholar.

93 ‘Relazione del Segretario 15 Feb. 1935’, ACS, Segretaria Particolare del Duce – Carteggio Riservato, b.31, fasc. ‘Gran Consiglio’, s.f. 13 1935, PNF, Sessione invernale del gran consiglio del Fascismo, 14–15–16 febbraio 1935 - XIII E.F., p. 38.

94 Prenassi, Il Duce per le Operaie, 14.