Introduction

Abstract

This book describes some changes in the position of Italian women in the post-war period. After the formation of the republic in 1946, women’s position in society and its links with the call for the renewal of the Italian family assumed some importance. The fight for legal change was a major focus of discussion and activity, and this book stresses activity around the law as vital in contributing to a different set of possibilities for women. The book examines three crucial areas of State regulation and discusses their place in the elaboration of a politics of and for women in post-war Italy. They were chosen because they ascribe particular rights and duties to women by virtue of certain capacities they may be seen to possess. These capacities originally derive from a biological potential that has traditionally carried a set of socio-cultural duties and expectations. The laws address ‘women’ in different ways, are concerned with the regulation of different statuses, and highlight different problems in discussing the use of the law as a means to effect change in the lives of women. Schematically speaking, they position women in the work-place vis-à-vis men, the State and the firm; in the family as wives and mothers vis-à-vis men as husbands and fathers; and socially as persons with reproductive capacities whose legal right to the interruption of those capacities is limited.