Academic literature on the topic 'Fascism and women Italy History'

AbstractThe years of fascist rule in Italy saw an unprecedented mass political mobilization of women, a mobilization that has, to date, been little studied by historians. This article focuses on the role of the ispettrici nazionali – the highest rank that women ever reached in the fascist party hierarchy. It attempts to piece together a ‘group portrait’ of these hitherto unstudied female hierarchs, who were appointed from 1937 onwards to form a group leadership for the fasci femminili – the women's section of the party and the only way that women could join it. The article investigates who these women were, how they managed to rise to this prominent position, their ideas and motivations, and their role in organizing and mobilizing millions of female party members for political campaigns and for the war effort.

This article explores the issue of elite representation through photography during the 1930s in Italy. It examines how modern technology affected representation and refers specifically to the work of Ghitta Carell, a photographer who became very successful by portraying prominent Fascist men and women in Italy, including the Duce. Images of the dictator had been continually developed since the late 1920s and frequent and various representations of his person, including the face, were pervasive. Carell's idealised style was much appreciated by high society and Fascist officials alike, while her work also has a darker emotional content that borrows from a painterly tradition. Although not engaged directly by the regime, Carell's work has to be considered as both separate from and complementary whilst also adding to the Fascist aesthetic. She was complicit with the cult of the Duce while revealing aspects of Mussolini's personality that other photographers avoided or missed.

This article adds to the growing literature on the history of food in the European dictatorships by examining and comparing the alimentary policies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and their application, paying particular attention to the relationship between class, gender, and the nation. It expands our knowledge and understanding of the mechanics of these dictatorships and of the impact of their food policies on their populations in a comparative way. The Fascist regime took initiatives related to food consumption from the mid-1920s, and women were at the centre of their food propaganda; Nazi Germany – in a similar manner to the Fascist regime – between 1933 and 1939, put in place food policies to encourage people to change their eating habits, even before the outbreak of the Second World War. The analysis of alimentary policies and strategies adopted by the Fascist and Nazi regimes, in the first part of their governments, illustrates the similarities in the populist construction of their food discourses and their efforts to galvanize their citizens. With the consolidation of the two regimes, national specific food initiatives, which were culturally bound and linked to economic and political choices emerged and delineated the differences between the two regimes. Through a detailed account of how food consumption was addressed in particular in domestic literature in the two countries, this article examines the uneven impact of food policies on the different social classes in Italy and Germany. It shows, through its comparative approach to the Italian Fascist and Nazi regimes, how food discourses and alimentary policies to control the population were similar in some respects and dissimilar in others.

Spanish fascist women played a very active role in the Falange’s cross-border relations with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. From the very beginning, fascist women took a preeminent place in these contacts and exchanges in order to see with their own eyes how both fascist models were at a practical level. These relationships between fascist women’s organizations were born out of deep ideological affinity and were especially fluid, firstly on a bilateral level and after 1940 on the ‘New Order’ Europe-wide multilateral, transnational collaboration. However, they lacked neither of political calculation nor could abstract from the wider frame of international politics in such an eminently war period. As this article will show, Falangist women used these fluid but less studied relationships to consolidate their own political position at home and explore other ways of political participation in a Nazi-Fascist New Europe, while at the same time trying to secure there a pre-eminent place for non-belligerent Spain. In the end, concerns about the own survival of the Franco dictatorship as the fate of war clearly changed in 1943, let ideological affinity succumb to the diplomatic conveniences they had once meant to overcome.

In 1934, four Argentine-born soccer players participated for the Italian team that won the FIFA World Cup on home soil. As children born to parents who participated in a wave of Italian immigrants that helped reshape Argentine society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these four players were part of a larger trend where over one hundred Argentine soccer players of Italian descent were signed by Italian clubs in the late 1920s and through the 1930s. This thesis examines the liminal space between Italian and Argentine identity within the broader context of diaspora formation in Argentina through a look at these four exemplars of the transatlantic talent shift. Utilizing sources that include Italian and Argentinian newspapers and magazines, national federation documents, and census and parish records, the thesis reveals the fluidity and temporality of national identity among Italo-Argentine immigrant offspring during the early twentieth century.

Denna uppsats ämnar finna de faktorer som drev före detta suffragetter till att ansluta sig till den fascistiska organisationen British Union of Fascists (BUF), samt redogöra för organisationens syn på kvinnors och kvinnors roll i samhället.  BUF grundades 1932 och var den största och mest framstående fascistiska gruppen i Storbritannien under mellankrigstiden. I samband med att organisationen nådde sin höjd i mitten av 1930-talet blev den ökänd för sina våldsamma möten och konfrontationer med politiska motståndare. De våldsamma metoderna som fascisterna använde skulle alienera dem från den breda brittiska politiken. När BUF proklamerade sitt stöd för Adolf Hitlers Nazityskland kom organisationen att fördömas av både den brittiska allmänheten och de etablerade partierna. British Union of Fascists skulle motsätta sig andra världskriget och uppmanade regeringen att förbjuda organisationen och arresterade många högtuppsatta medlemmar 1940. Fascismen var känd för att ha en patriarkal, traditionalistisk och reaktionär syn på kön och kvinnor. Men trots detta lyckades organisationen attrahera tidigare suffragetter. Så hur kunde de som tidigare kämpat för jämställdhet gå med i en rörelse som motsatte sig jämställdhet? Vilken syn hade BUF på kvinnan och kvinnorollen? För att svara på detta har jag studerat och analyserat ideologisk text skrivna av organisationens grundare och ledare Oswald Mosley samt andra fascistiska medlemmar. Jag har också använt mig av tillgänglig forskning från etablerade professorer och historiker för att nå en slutsats.   Resultatet visar att British Union of Fascists hade en mycket traditionalistisk och reaktionär syn på kvinnan och kvinnorollen. Svaghet betraktades och beskrivs som feminint och manlighet betraktades och beskrivs som styrka. BUF ansåg att kvinnan rent naturligt föredrog hemmet framför arbete och att moderskapet var kvinnans högsta kallelse i livet. Fascisterna betraktade kvinnors framgångar i kampen för jämställdhet som samhällets degeneration och förfall. Resultaten visar även att det fanns många faktorer som drev de tidigare suffragetterna till British Union of Fascists. Vilka faktorer som var avgörande beror på suffragetten i fråga. I min forskning har jag hittat tre exempel på tidigare suffragetter som gick med i BUF. Dessa var Norah Dacre Fox, Mary Sophia Allen och Mary Richardson. De faktorer som fick Norah Dacre Fox att ansluta sig till BUF var primärt möjligheten för sig och sin partner att få politiska karriärer. Fox hävdade att BUF var suffragettrörelsens arvtagare men jag har inte hittat några bevis för att detta var en primär faktor som fick henne att gå med i organisationen. De faktorer som fick Mary Sophia Allen att gå med i BUF var sannolikt krigsutbrottet 1939. Allen var sedan tidigare en beundrare av Adolf Hitler vilket troligtvis fick henne att motsätta sig ett krig mot dennes regim. Hon tjänstgjorde även under första världskriget och var troligtvis väl medveten om krigets fasor, något som kan ha bidragit till att hon motsatte sig ett nytt krig. De faktorer som fick Mary Richardson att gå med BUF var att hon ansåg att organisation och fascismen som ideologi var det enda som kunde rädda landet från stagnation. Richardson såg också mycket i BUF som påminde henne om suffragettrörelsen, och som en militant suffragett i sin ungdom kan BUFs militarism och paramilitära aktioner ha varit attraktiva. Det är därför troligt att de faktorer som fick Richardson att gå med i fascisterna var en kombination mellan att tro på dem som en politisk kraft såväl som deras militanta tillvägagångssätt. Richardson lämnade organisationen efter interna bråk och kom att anklaga organisationen för att i själva verket motarbeta kvinnors rättigheter. Strävan efter jämlikhet kan därför mycket väl ha varit en bidragande faktor till att hon anslöt sig till fascisterna, men jag har inte hittat några bevis som uttryckligen pekar på detta.
This essay revolves around the fascist organization British Union of Fascists (BUF) and their view on women and women’s role in society. It also examines former suffragettes who joined the organization, with the goal of establishing which factors contributed to them seeking membership in the organization.  Founded in 1932, the BUF was the largest and most prominent fascist group in the United Kingdom during the interwar period. Reaching its peak in the mid-1930s, the organization would become infamous for violent rallies and clashes with political opponents. The violent methods of the fascists would alienate them from mainstream British politics. And the organization would be condemned by both the British political establishment and British public after pleading their allegiance to Adolf Hitlers Nazi Germany. The British Union of Fascists would oppose the second world war, prompting the government to ban the organization and arresting numerous high-ranking members in 1940. Fascism was known for having a patriarchal, traditionalist and reactionary view on gender and women. But despite this fact, the organization managed to attract former suffragettes. So how come that those who fought for equality between the sexes would join a movement that opposed the same? How did British Union of Fascists view women and the female role?  To answer this, I have studied, and analysed ideological text written by the organizations founder and leader Oswald Mosley, alongside other fascist members. I have also used available research by established professors and historians to reach a valid conclusion.    The result shows that the British Union of Fascists had a highly traditional and reactionary view on women. Weakness was viewed and described as feminine, while masculinity was viewed and described as strength. The group regarded the home as women’s natural habitat, and childbirth as their highest calling in life. The fascists viewed women’s recent achievements in the struggle for equality as the degeneration and downfall of society.  The results also shows that there were numerous factors that drove the former suffragettes, each depending on the suffragette in question. In my research I have found three examples of former suffragettes who joined the BUF. These were Norah Dacre Fox, Mary Sophia Allen and Mary Richardson. The factors that made Norah Dacre Fox join the BUF was primarily the possibility of herself and her partner to gain political careers through the organization. Fox did argue that she viewed the BUF as successors to the suffragette movement, but I have not found any evidence that proves that this was a primary factor for her joining the BUF. The factors that made Mary Sophia Allen join the BUF were most likely the outbreak of the second world war. She was an admirer of Adolf Hitler which probably made her oppose a war against his regime. She also served during the first world war, something that might have contributed to her opposing a new war due the horrors of warfare. Mary Richardson joined the BUF because she believed that the organization and the ideology of fascism were needed to save to country from its downfall. Richardson also saw a lot in the BUF that remined her of the suffragette movement, and as a militant suffragette in her youth the BUFs militarism and paramilitary actions might have been attractive. It is therefore likely that the factors that made Richardson join the fascists were a combination between agreeing with their views on the degeneration of British society as well as their militant actions. Richardson did leave the organization after a falling-out with its leader, and she would accuse the group of working against women’s rights. The pursuit of equality might very well have been a contributing factor for joining, but I have not found any evidence that explicitly points to this.

This dissertation examines the cultural, intellectual and artistic contributions religious women made in the production of secular and religious books in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Italy. It presents the first comparative study of nuns' book production across Italy and introduces new manuscripts to the canon of nuns' bookwork. Though the scholarship of the last fifty years has increased our understanding of the institutional and individual lives of nuns, little research has been done on their production and exchange of texts. Nun-scribes and manuscript painters produced liturgical, devotional and administrative books for use in-house, as well as for secular and religious communities and individuals outside the walls of the convents. Evidence of their bookwork repositions them as active participants in a rich spiritual, intellectual and artistic life and broadens their sphere of activity and influence to include a wide community of secular and religious patrons, artistic collaborators, scholars, family members, and book-buying clientele. Through a close examination of the material evidence in their manuscripts, this study illustrates how nuns used the production and exchange of texts to further their individual and institutional goals. This dissertation makes an important contribution to the current understanding nuns' spiritual, artistic and intellectual life and practice and significantly reshapes the current understanding of women's education and learning in Renaissance and early modern Italy (1400-1650).

On 13 April 1635, Druze emir Fakhr al-Dīn Maʿn was executed in Constantinople, after years of ambiguous relations with the Ottoman sultan. Exactly three centuries later, a biography of the emir was published in Rome, edited by Maronite father Paolo Carali and financed by the Fascist government. The reason why Fascism was interested in his figure can be traced back to the policy implemented by Italy in the 1930s, which sought to penetrate the territories of Lebanon and Syria. However, these were regions in which Fascist Italy had no real interest or claim, and so it sought to build a tie between the Levant and Italy by rereading the historiography of the relationship between “Faccardino” and Medici Tuscany at the beginning of the seventeenth century. By comparing the policies of the Medici and Fascism, it will be possible to highlight how, through Carali’s work, the latter sought to construct a history that would support its ambitions towards the eastern Mediterranean.

This chapter summarizes key themes and presents some final thoughts. It argues that the tragedy of fascism and Nazism should have taught us that totalitarianism establishes itself through banal men, and that the true antidote is a religion that prevents one from adoring men who pretend to be gods, for it teaches us to love instead the inner God of moral conscience, and to defend liberty with absolute devotion. It is a lesson of history to be pondered. This book, having narrated a few moments of the history of the religion of liberty in Italy, will certainly not help bring it back to life, even though it is desperately needed; but it will at least help us preserve the memory of the men and women who lived for it.

In the last few years a role of Lupus Anticoagulant (LAC) in the aetiology of repeated spontaneous abortions and intrauterine deaths has been repeatedly suggested. To quantify this association few da ta are available, since the published reports are generally based on uncontrolled and small clinical series. We have analyzed data from a case-control study conducted in Bergamo and Milan, two contiguous provinces in Lombardia, Italy. Cases were 63 women, mean age 30 years, range 23-40, with 2 or more "sine causa" spontaneous abortions (repeated abortions) admitted between March 1985 and December 1986 to the Ospedali Riuniti of Bergamo and Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento of Milan. Controls were 63 women, mean age 32 years, range 20-49, with 1 or more live births and without spon taneous abortions, admitted to the same Institutions for neither gynaecological nor cardiovascular acute conditions. Informations were collected on sociodemographic factors, gynaecological and obstetrical data and related medical history. LAC was diagnosed according to the Working Party reccomandations (1983) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) according to the revised criteria of ihe American Rheumatism Association (1982). 11 out of 63 cases (17%) (95% confidence interval ranging from 9.5% to 34% based on the Poisson's approximation) were LAC positive, whereas in none of 63 controls this inhibitor was detected (X2 1adjusted for age = 10.1, p= 0.02). Similarly SLE was diagnosed in 4 cases (all having a Lupus Anticoagulant) and in none control (x2 1adjusted for age= 4.17, p=0.02). These findings confirm that LAC is associated with a positive history of repeated abortions, being present in about 10% of the cases. Conclusive estimate of relative risk is prevented by the small control gr'oup size (i.e. lack of positivity for LAC in controls), but very elevated risk (many tenfold increase) is sugge. sted.