Italian males counteract campaigning housewives

Press, 18 March 1989, Page 18

Italian males counteract campaigning housewives

By

JILL SERJEANT

NZPA-Reuter Milan

Italy’s macho males feel under threat and believe its time to reassert themselves.

But in a country where most men would not be seen dead carrying a shopping bag, scornful females say the spoilt Italian male has rarely had it so good.

In the same month as the Italian Housewives’ Federation announced plans to fight the next General Elections, a divorced Milanese entrepreneur was founding the National Association for the Salvation of the Italian Male. “Italian men have been trampled on by women for far too long. It’s time for us to wake up and reestablish our lost supremacy,” said the association’s president, Mr Umberto Gallini.

Since Mr Gallini placed a newspaper advertisement last month inviting unhappily married men to call his number, the telephone has rarely stopped ringing.

He now has 43 members united in a desire to shake off the yoke of matrimony and campaign for a national referendum to replace the life-long commitment with a no-strings, three-year contract renewable only if both parties agree.

“We don’t hate women

— on the contrary. But they’re cunning and sly, while men are naive, and when a marriage is over, they rob you for all you’ve got,” said Mr Gallini, aged 45.

According to his association the woes of the Italian male began in 1975 when Parliament approved a new family code giving husbands and wives equal rights and duties. Previously the husband was the legal head of the family and decided where it should live and how the children should be brought up. “Women are always demanding something but they live longer than men, can retire earlier than men and when marriage is over they get half your money and property and use the children as emotional and financial blackmail.

“Now the Housewives’ Federation are gearing up. We men really must be saved,” he said. As well as trying to gather support, for a referendum to introduce the three-year contract, the association is organising all-male holidays to exotic destinations such as the Caribbean and Madagascar “where the Italian male is still appreciated.” It is hardly surprisingly that such talk is guaranteed to ruffle the feathers of the Italian housewives’ movement.

Formed only six years ago, the Housewives’ Federation now has 500,000 members dedicated to seeking recognition for the unpaid and unrecognised work that women do in the home. To the horror of Mr Gallini’s group, they have about 900 male members. Most are widowers or divorced men unable to cope domestically without the female touch but a small number are men who support the cause, or husbands who have swapped jobs with careerminded wives. “We still have the'sort of culture in which women do everything. We are trying to change public opinion and persuade Italians that it’s not unmacho for men to wash the floor or make a cup of coffee,” said Ms Alessandra Caradonna, president of the northern Lombardy section of the federation.

"I know many men, including my own husband, who will not even carry a shopping bag because they are afraid of what their male friends would say if they saw them,” she said.

As in most other Western nations, the growth of industry coupled with higher material aspirations and better educational opportunities has meant that many more married Italian women are working full time out-

side the home than 30 years ago.

But Italian society still expects them to shoulder all the burdens of running a home, looking after children and often elderly relatives as well, Ms Caradonna said. Yet Italian statutes still define the housewife as “a non-productive person dependent on others.”

The Housewives’ Federation is lobbying politicians to have that definition abolished and a national congress decided last month that if they got no response they would form a party to fight the General Elections in 1992. They would also like financial recognition from the State — a token 300,000 lire ($362) a month is the initial aim.

“We would be crazy to use the word ‘salary’ at this stage,” Ms Caradonna said.

Most members are young people but there are also many older women who would like to change things for their grandchildren. “Unfortunately Latin culture is still one in which the mamma does everything for her son and he grows up not expecting to lift a finger for himself.

“Women get the men they deserve, so it’s up to us to do the changing,” she said.