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Empire, Gender and the ‘Home Front’ in Fascist Italy

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09612020701445719

1747-583X

Perry Willson,

Communism, Protests, Social Movements

Abstract This article considers the ways in which Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and the subsequent League of Nations sanctions shaped the tasks assigned to women within the Fascist Party. During the period of sanctions and, indeed, after their ending, right up until the Second World War, empire and women's contribution to it became a core theme in Fascist propaganda. Female party members were mobilised for the imperial cause both as producers and as consumers and this led to a new emphasis on their importance to the nation. The activities of the Fascist women's groups expanded considerably to include a range of new tasks such as running training courses on how to fight waste in housework, 'autarkic cookery' and so on. This article also discusses how young Italian women were prepared for a role in Italy's 'place in the sun' through special courses created to train them for a future as colonial wives. Notes [1] There is, by now, a rich historiography on the relationship between gender and empire. For a useful overview of some of the key issues see L. Abrams (2002) The Making of Modern Woman 1789–1918 (London: Longman), ch. 9: 'Women's Mission to Empire'. [2] See, for example, C. Ipsen (1996) Dictating Demography: the problem of population in Fascist Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). [3] For a passionately written account of the Ethiopian War, highly critical of the behaviour of the Italian invaders, see the classic A. del Boca (1969) The Ethiopian War (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). On the background to the war (and a useful bibliography) see N. Labanca (2003) Studies and Research on Fascist Colonialism, 1922–1935, in P. Palumbo (Ed.) A Place in the Sun: Africa in Italian colonial culture from post‐unification to the present (Berkeley: University of California Press). [4] See, for example, V. De Grazia (1992) How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy 1922–1945 (Berkeley: California University Press); P. Willson (2003) Italy, in K. Passmore (Ed.) Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe 1919–1945 (Manchester and New Brunswick: Manchester University Press and Rutgers University Press), pp. 11–32; P. Willson (2002) Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: the Massaie Rurali (London: Routledge); H. Dittrich‐Johanssen (2002) Le 'militi dell'idea'. Storia delle organizzazioni femminili del Partito Nazionale Fascista (Florence: Olschki). [5] M. Fraddosio (1989) La donna e la guerra. Aspetti della mobilitazione femminile nel fascismo: dalla mobilitazione civile alle origini del Saf nella RSI, Storia contemporanea, 6. [6] On these courses see, for example, M. Castellani (1937) La donna e il servizio militare, Almanacco della donna italiana. [7] N. Labanca (2002) Etiopia, guerra di, in V. De Grazia & S. Luzzato (Eds) Dizionario del fascismo (Turin: Einaudi), vol. 1, p. 492. On the military preparations see, for example, G. Rochat (1971) Militari e politici nelle preparazione della campagna d'Etiopia. Studio e documenti 1932–1936 (Milan: Franco Angeli). [8] P. Willson (1993) The Clockwork Factory: women and work in Fascist Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 251. [9] On the sanctions see, for example, G. Federico (2003) Sanzioni, in De Grazia & Luzzatto (Eds) Dizionario del fascismo, vol. 2, pp. 590–592. [10] According to one recent study, the inclusion of coal would have made little difference but the inclusion of oil would have made the Italian economy grind to a virtual halt within a few months. (C. A. Ristuccia (2000) The 1935 Sanctions against Italy. Would Coal and Oil have Made a Difference? European Review of Economic History, 1.) [11] War widows joined this organisation in 1923 (although it only acquired this particular name in 1924) when their own organisation—the Associazione Nazionale Madri e Vedove dei Caduti in Guerra (National Association for Mothers and Widows of the War Dead)—was merged by the regime with various other groups for relatives of the war dead. On war widows see F. Lagorio (1995) Italian Widows of the First World War, in F. Coetzee & M. S. Coetzee (Eds) Authority, Identity and the Social History of the Great War (Providence and Oxford: Berghahn); F. Lagorio (1994–95) Appunti per una storia sulle vedove di guerra italiane nei conflitti mondiali, Rivista di storia contemporanea, 1–2, pp. 170–193. [12] For a description of this ceremony and the propaganda film made of it see B. Tobia (1998) Sull'altare della patria (Bologna: Il Mulino), pp. 105–107. See also A. Molinari (2002) Giornata della fede, Dizionario del fascismo, vol. 1, pp. 597–598. [13] On the early Fasci Femminili see D. Detriagache (1983) Il fascismo femminile da San Sepolcro all'affare Matteotti (1919–1925), Storia contemporanea, 14(2), pp. 225–230; S. Bartoloni (1988) Dalla crisi del movimento delle donne alle origini del fascismo. L''Almanacco della donna italiana' e la 'Rassegna Femminile Italiana', in A. M. Crispino (Ed.) Esperienza storica femminile nell'età moderna e contemporanea (Rome: UDI). [14] These membership figures are from La donna fascista (15 November 1935), p. 1. On the organisation for peasant women see Willson (2002) Peasant Women and Politics. [15] See, for example, Anon. (1935) Mobilitazione femminile contro le sanzioni. Il rapporto delle fiduciarie a Palazzo Littorio, La donna fascista, 15 November, p. 1. [16] L. Arciello (1936) La donna fascista, La donna fascista, 1 April, p. 3. The translation of this quotation, like all others cited in this article, is my own. [17] G. G. Alessandri (1936) Due Imperialismi, La donna fascista, 1–6 January, p. 3. This notion, that Italians were somehow kindly colonisers with particularly good intentions, to an extent still persists today. (See R. P. Iazzi [2003] Mass‐Mediated Fantasies of Feminine Conquest, 1930–1940, in Palumbo, A Place in the Sun, p. 199.) On the reluctance of successive Italian governments to admit the misdeeds of Italy's colonial past see A. Del Boca (2003) The Myths, Suppressions, Denials and Defaults of Italian Colonialism, in ibid. (Palumbo). [18] A. Portecorvo (1936) L'Abissinia e le sue leggi, La donna fascista, 15 January, p. 4. [19] See, for example, A. Pontecorvo (1936) L'Abissinia e la maternità ed infanzia, La donna fascista, 15 March, p. 6. [20] See, for example, S. Benedettini (1937) La donna in Africa orientale, Almanacco della donna italiana, pp. 399–402. [21] See, for example, Anon. (1935) Fronte interno, La donna fascista, 1 December, p. 7. G.G. Alessandri (1935) Direttive di oggi e di domani, La donna fascista, 15 November, p. 3. See also N. Milla (1936) La donna e le sanzioni, Almanacco della donna italiana, p. 357. [22] The mobilisation of women as consumers also featured in the making of certain other empires. One, rather different, example, were the anti‐slavery campaigners in nineteenth‐century Britain who exhorted women to boycott slave‐grown sugar. [23] On the role of women in peasant families in the Fascist period see S. Salvatici (1999) Contadine nell'Italia fascista: presenze, ruoli, immagini (Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier); Willson (2002) Peasant Women and Politics, ch. 1. [24] For a detailed description of the work of these committees see M. Castellani (1937) Donne italiane di ieri e di oggi (Florence: Bemporad), ch. 9. [25] The text of this speech is reproduced in ibid., p. 173. [26] See SB (1937) Attività dei Fasci Femminili, Almanacco della donna italiana, p. 391. Sewing workshops for soldiers' wives had been a widely used form of 'welfare assistance' in World War One. Indeed, it was how most of the uniforms were produced for the Italian armed forces. See B. Pisa (1989) Un'azienda di stato a domicilio: la confezione di indumenti militari durante la grande guerra, Storia contemporanea, 6, pp. 953–1006; B. Pisa (1998) La questione del vestiario militare fra mobilitazione civile e strategie logistiche, in A. Staderini, L. Zani & F. Magni (Eds) La grande guerra e il fronte interno. Studi in onore di George Mosse (Camerino: Università degli Studi). [27] Other organisations were also busy. The Associazione Nazionale Donne Professioniste e Artiste (National Association for Women Professionals and Artists), for example, whose members included many leading Fascist women, produced propaganda materials, gave talks and ran air raid preparedness courses in collaboration with the air raid protection agency UNPA. [28] These instructions came from Party Secretary Starace in FD (Fascist Party 'order sheet') no. 519. They are reproduced in Anon. (1936) Programma antisanzionista, La donna fascista, 1 February, pp. 6–7. [29] L. Marani Argnani, 'Relazione attività 1 semestre anno XIV. 30 aprile 1936', Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia, Gab. Pref., busta 52, fascicolo 16 'Fascio femminile, Prof.sa Laura Marani'. On Marani Argnani see P. Willson (2006) The Fairytale Witch: Laura Marani Argnani and the Fasci Femminili of Reggio Emilia, 1929–1940, Contemporary European History, 1, pp. 23–42. [30] M. Guidi (1936) L'orto per la famiglia, La donna fascista, 15 March, p. 4. [31] Castellani Donne italiane di ieri, p. 175. [32] SB (1937) Attività dei Fasci Femminili, Almanacco della donna italiana, p. 396. [33] There are references to the 'need' for more white women in the colonies even before this. See, for example, L. Casella (1936) Coscienza di colonizzatori, La donna fascista, 1 June, p. 2; M. Astuto (1936) La donna italiana nell'impero fascista, La donna fascista, 15 June, p. 2. [34] N. Labanca (2002) Oltremare. Storia dell'espansione coloniale italiana (Bologna: Il Mulino), p.399. [35] C. E. Gadda (1938) La donna si prepara ai suoi compiti coloniali, Le Vie d'Italia, October, cited in C. Burdett (2000) Journeys to Italian East Africa 1936–1941: narratives of settlement, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2, p. 224n. [36] The courses were set up with FD no. 853. See Anon. (1937) Preparazione della donna alla vita coloniale, La donna fascista, 1–15 August 1937, p. 2. This order sheet also called for the Giovani Fasciste groups to create a special colonial section. [37] The curriculum was announced in FD no. 853. The text of this order sheet is reproduced in Anon. (1937) Preparazione della donna alla vita coloniale, La donna fascista, 20 October, p. 2. This same FD also announces the production of two textbooks to be used on the course. [38] See, for example, M. Norto (1936) Il campo precoloniale, La donna fascista, 10–15 August, p.6. This article, about the camp held for Venetian trainees, is illustrated by a photograph of young women shooting rifles. [39] Fraddosio (1989) 'La donna e la guerra'. For a contrasting view see De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women, pp. 278–282. [40] On the Italian race policies in Africa see, for example, L. Preti (1974) Fascist Imperialism and Racism, in R. Sarti (Ed.) The Ax Within (New York: New Viewpoints); L. Goglia (1988) Note sul razzismo coloniale fascista, Storia contemporanea, 6; G. Barrera (2003) Mussolini's Colonial Race Laws and State‐Settler Relations in Africa Orientale Italiana (1935–41), Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 3; G. Barrera (2004) Sex, Citizenship and the State: the construction of the public and private spheres in colonial Eritrea, in P. Willson (Ed.) Gender, Family and Sexuality: the private sphere in Italy, 1860–1945 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). [41] A. Fani (1937) La donna e l'impero, Almanacco della donna italiana, p. 129. [42] See, for example, Anon. (1938) La donna nel impero, La donna fascista, 25 July, p. 2. [43] Labanca, Oltremare, p. 401. There is still little research about the role of Italian women in the colonies. On literary writings by some of them see C. Lombardi‐Diop (2005) Pioneering Female Modernity: Fascist women in colonial Africa, in R. Ben‐Ghiat & M. Fuller (Eds) Italian Colonialism (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). [44] About 2000 kilos of gold were collected in December 1935 alone. According to the Fascist daily, Il Popolo d'Italia, 250,000 rings were donated in Rome and its province and 180,000 in Milan (Tobia, Sull'altare della patria, p. 107). [45] There is considerable evidence from sources such as oral history that many women did avoid this deliberately and certainly not all Italian women gave up their rings. At the Magneti Marelli light engineering firm in Milan, for example, those women who had babies in the firm's nursery (and therefore especially feared losing their jobs) were much more likely to donate their wedding rings than other workers. (Willson, The Clockwork Factory, p. 180.) [46] Salvatici Contadine dell'Italia fascista, p. 45. [47] K. Ferris (2006) 'Fare di ogni famiglia un fortilizio': the League of Nations' economic sanctions and everyday life in Venice, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2, p. 126. [48] See E. Paulicelli (2004) Fashion under Fascism: beyond the Blackshirt (Oxford and New York: Berg), p. 55. [49] Ferris, "Fare di ogni famiglia un fortilizio", p. 121. [50] S. Falasca‐Zamponi (1997) Fascist Spectacle: the aesthetics of power in Mussolini's Italy (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 181. [51] M. R. Higonnet & P. L‐R. Higonnet (1987) The Double Helix, in M. R. Higgonet, J. Jenson, S. Michel & M. C. Weitz (Eds) Behind the Lines: gender and the two world wars (New Haven and London: Yale University Press). [52] Soon this included setting up Fasci Femminili in the colonies themselves. By 1936 there were already FF Federations in Bengasi, Mogadishu, Tripoli and Asmara. [53] See, for example, Castellani (1937) 'La donna e il servizio militare', pp. 89–94. [54] As De Grazia puts this: 'Fascist women thus shared in, and perhaps reinforced, the jejune militarism that fascist men practised' (De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women, p. 281). [55] E. Bricchetto (2005) The Truth of Propaganda: the Corriere della Sera and the Ethiopian War, paper given at ASMI Conference on 'Italy at War', Edinburgh, Scotland. [56] See, for example, the front page of La donna fascista (15 October 1935) which includes a photograph of Italian women wearing gas masks. Additional informationNotes on contributorsPerry Willson Perry Willson is Professor of Modern History at the University of Dundee, UK. Her publications include The Clockwork Factory: women and work in Fascist Italy (Oxford University Press, 1993) and Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: the Massaie Rurali (Routledge, 2002). She is currently writing a book on Women in Twentieth Century Italy to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.