Italy’s Women Face Brickwall in Political Life

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 376, 9 June 1928, Page 10

Italy’s Women Face Brickwall in Political Life

Not Given Vote Under Fascist Rule, Although Many are Fart of Electoral Machinery BEAUTY AND GREATNESS The Italian woman has received scant encouragement to take any part in politicss. Not only is she excluded by law from all major roles, for she may neither vote nor stand for election, but even minor excursions into the realm of politics are denied her. The Italian man believes that woman's place is in the home, mending his socks and tending his children, and he tells her so in no uncertain terms whenever occasion offers. It is well known that the Italian electoral system was changed recently. Members of Parliament in the future will be selected, not by the voters, but by the Fascist syndicates or corporations. These are Labour organisations whose nearest equivalents are the trade unions, says an American writer. Naturally, all women who have an art, craft, trade or profession of any sort are members of Fascist syndicates. The question, therefore, arises as to how far women will be permitted to share in the selection of future members of Parliament through their syndicalist organisations. The electoral Bill as framed leaves the point doubtful, as it does not mention women specifically, speaking only of “members of the syndicates.” Journal Starts Referendum The Women’s Journal has taken up the question by starting a referendum asking all political men, students of social problems, journalists, and others to answer the following two questions: First, what do you think woman’s function within the syndicates must, or can be? Second, do you think that with the new electoral system on a corporative basis the women members of the syndicates will have any function in the selection of candidates for Parliament? "II Popolo Di Roma,” the capital’s morning Fascist paper, answers both questions in a way which tends more to downrightness than politeness. “Woman’s function in the syndicates should be to get out of them as soon as possible,” is its reply to the first question. For the second question it suggests alternative answers. The first is, “The only candidates women should designate are candidates for matrimony,” and the second is, “Women would employ their time more profitably in producing candidates than in designating them.” From the half contemptuous, half impatient tone of these answers it is easy to see that the “political woman” is not popular in Italy. Not with the men, at any rate. Prospects are not at all rosy for her. Duce Granted Local Suffrage The feminist cause has experienced peculiar ups and downs in Italy under the Fascist regime. One of the first questions asked of Premier Musolini by foreign newspapermen after the Fascist march on Rome was what he thought of the votes-for-women movement. The Premier replied with words to the effect that the right place for women is in the home, and therefore politics are not for them. Yet Premier Mussolini himself, not so very long afterward, was to afford the woman suffrage cause its first victory in Italy by granting women the right to vote in municipal elections. He said then that this was merely the first step toward granting them suffrage in general elections also. But II Duce was to take away with his left hand what he had granted with his right. Before women had an opportunity to exercise their new right he suppressed municipal elections altogether, both for men and women. After the suppression of municipal elections there was again some talk of granting limited categories of women full suffrage rights. Then political elections, in the accepted sence of the word, were suppressed also, the right to vote being vested in the Fascist syndicates. Now the question of whether women should be allowed any share in politics through their syndicates hangs in the balance. But things look bad for them. Women Show Little Interest In all fairness, it must be confessed that Italian women have not shown any particular desire to participate in politics. They have never raised an outcry to be granted suffrage and when Premier Mussolini authorised them to participate in

municipal elections they did not appear to be particularly thrilled by the prospect. Many Italians are not yet reconciled to modern fashions and sigh for the “good old days when women were content with the faces God gave them.” Not the least of the sins laid at America’s door is that it headed the revolt of women against old conventions. When a “well-known American beauty specialist, for instance, recently opened a branch in Rome, many almost resented it as if it were an invention of the devil.

Y'et every now and then a voice is raised in defence of the modern woman and her ways. It was not without surprise that people read a few days ago a long article in the “Tribuna di Roma,” official evening Fascist organ, in defence of “painted faces.” The writer sought to show that periods in which women painted their faces coincided with eras of great splendour and power in the histories of all peoples. By a curious confusion of cause and effect, indeed, he attempted to prove that the great care lavished by women upon their personal appearance is a cause of the greatness of nations instead of an effect. All powerful civilisations, Indian, Chinese, Persian, Chaldean, Assyrian, and Egyptian, were preceded by exaggerated refinement in women’s fashions, he showed. The greatest heights were reached by the Greeks and Romans, whose women rivaled our modern ones in artifices employed to enhance their beauty. After the dark ages this “art” sprang up again in Italy during the golden era of medievalism, then passed to France, where it coincided with the beginning of France’s upward climb, which made her mistress of Europe and leader of the world’s spiritual life.