The Redefinition of Gender Relationships in Italian Post-War Period (1945-1948)
Firstly, I will briefly describe some characteristics of the Italian women’s presence during the war and the Resistance movement, with particular regard to the area of occupied Italy. I will also present the social and political programme of the “Gruppi di difesa della donna e per l’assistenza ai volontari della libertà” and the birth of the new female associationism in the context of the country’s main political cultures: communist, socialist, Catholic.
Following a passage on obtaining political citizenship, the second part of my intervention will focus on women’s activities in the Constituent Assembly ̶ I will make a quick portrait of social, generational and political affiliations ̶ and on the most important debates concerning social and civil citizenship. In particular, I will highlight the aspects of fragility with respect to work, welfare, and civil rights. I will also focus on the models prevailing in the representation of gender and on the meaning assumed in that period by the word “emancipation”.
The third part of my paper will be dedicated to the subjectivity of women, i.e. to the ways in which two female generations (the first born around 1910; the second in the early twenties) experienced the exit from the war.
The conclusion will concern the choice of the 1948 as conclusive year of the post-war period in Italy and the effects of the Cold War on the redefinition of gender relationships in the country during the 1950s.
About autor
Elda Guerra carried out research and training activities within the network of the Institutes for the History of the Resistance and Contemporary History She was Professor of Didactics of History at the Specialization School for High Schools Teaching of the University of Bologna. Among the founders of the Centre for Documentation, Research and Initiatives of the Women of Bologna, she has been responsible for research projects at national and European level. Currently, she is the Scientific Director of the Women’s History Archive. Her publications include Storia e cultura politica delle donne, Bologna, Archetipolibri, 2008, Il dilemma della pace. Femministe e pacifiste sulla scena internazionale, 1914-1939, Roma, Viella, 2014, Il dialogo con la Società delle nazioni in Stefania Bartoloni (ed.), La grande guerra delle italiane, Roma, Viella, 2016, Attraversare una soglia: generazioni e forme della cittadinanza delle donne italiane dal dopoguerra agli anni Settanta, in 1946, la costruzione della cittadinanza. L’annale Irsifar, Milano, Angeli, 2018.