«Dthe twenty-one women elected out of 556 deputies on 2 June 1946, the first to enter Palazzo Montecitorio is Bianca Bianchisocialist, professor of philosophy, who earned over 15 thousand preferential votes in Florence, more than double those of the leaders Sandro Pertini» we read in the pages of the essay “We have no fear. The women who made the Republic” which Serena Dandini has just published for Einaudi, an “affectionate genealogy” of the so-called Constituent Mothers which becomes a glimpse into the life of all Italians. The last to enter will be Lina Merlinthe oldest of the “deputies”, as they call them, with a certain derision: they are aged from 25 to 58 and come from all over Italy. It seems to see them. They fearlessly set out to do their duty under certainly not benevolent gazes.
The Constituent Mothers between “body shaming” and superficiality
By Bianca Bianchi, who enters first, the newspapers do not comment on the electoral success, but I look at it: «She was immediately nicknamed “the very blonde”». For better or for worse, the articles “emphasize the physical appearance of the new deputies and the toilets chosen for the occasion, as if it were a fashion show or an opera premiere.” Body shaming, as we call it today, will be ferocious. It will belittle the beautiful and offend the ugly.
Beyond the Resistance: the beginning of a new battle
The most interesting part of Serena Dandini’s book, paradoxically, is not so much the “before” of the victory, which she recounts with great liveliness the incredible adventures of these womenforced to separate from their children, removed from jobs and teaching and sent into confinement, arrested, tortured, detained in terrible conditions, sent to concentration camps, forced into a life in hiding and tested by the loss of resistant brothers, fathers and husbands, but that of the “after”.
Because having landed on the famous parliamentary “benches” should finally constitute a point of arrival. But no, it’s an exhausting starting point for a new battle all over againdifferent from that of clandestinity and armed struggle, more subtle, but no less tiring, less frustrating, less painful. The battle of credibility, of being able to assert one’s voice. Dodging the “friendly fire” of colleagues, of a mocking press, of family situations that degenerate.
The mark on the Constitution: “de facto” equality
They all want to bring into the Constituent Assembly those fundamental social demands for equality that they have experienced first hand. Starting from the legal equality of article 3 of the Constitutionwhere it was the “female deputies” who insisted on adding the expression “in fact” to the second paragraph. «It is the duty of the Republic to remove economic and social obstacles which, by effectively limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organization of the country».
The prejudices of the classroom: subject to the vagaries of the cycle
To gain access to the judiciary, they had to fight against many male constituents who considered women unfit to judge as they were subject to the vagaries of the menstrual cycle, as claimed, for example, by Giovanni Leone, in defiance of article 51 which establishes the right of access to public offices in conditions of equality as equal. Says Teresa Mattei, the youngest of the 21: «An old liberal deputy, completely scandalized, said to me: “But miss…”. He didn’t even call me “honorable colleague”, (…) don’t you know that on certain days of the month women don’t think straight? They can’t be magistrates!” So I replied: “I think there are men who never think for the whole month!”.
The most prepared at the beginning are also the most astonished at such male obtuseness. Maria Federicifrom L’Aquila of Armenian origins, professor of literature and wife of the critic Mario Agamben, “could only ask disconsolately in the classroom: ‘What are you afraid of? Remember that all modern Constitutions no longer impose restrictions (…). Do you perhaps want the homeland of law to be below other countries, even those of a lesser civilization than the Italian one?”‘.
Transversal alliances (even against parties)
Ah, the fear. The one that the deputies don’t have, which is in the title of the essay and which comes from the famous song. «Even though we are women/we are not afraid/we have good tongues/and we defend ourselves well…». Even if they have different ideas and belong to different camps, the “female deputies” will be able to generate transversal alliances to always keep women’s rights at the forefront. Teresa Noce (communist) and Maria Federici (Christian Democrat) they will be among the most committed not only in terms of access to the judiciary, but also for article 37, which guarantees female workers the same rights and wages as men. And then we must commit ourselves to the protection of the family (articles 29 and 30) e for the recognition of the rights of children born out of wedlockuntil then ghosts without any legal protection.
Political solitudes and private disappointments: the price of autonomy
And the battles, the clashes, the blows are not only the public ones on the benches of Montecitorio, but also the private ones, dealing with manipulative comrades. When in 1953 Teresa Noce discovers that her husband Luigi Longo has obtained from the Sacred Rota the annulment of their marriage by forging her signature, she turns to the party’s internal commission which, instead of agreeing with her, completely marginalizes her. Teresa Mattei with the polka dot dress was expelled from the PCI in 1955 because he opposes the Stalinist line. And already in 1948 Rita Montagnana, wife of Palmiro Togliatti, is cast aside after her husband consolidated his relationship with Nilde Iotti.
The Sicilian noblewoman Ottavia Penna he resigns almost immediately due to disagreements with his party, the Everyman’s Front, and Lina Merlin he will always have very tense relations bordering on breaking with the PSI which he will end up leaving in 1961. It was the price to pay to maintain his own decision-making and ethical autonomy. The author says: «I hope that their incredible stories – as in a Star Wars saga – can instill in the new generations “the strength” to move forward without giving up in the face of the difficulties and challenges that an increasingly individualistic and aggressive era imposes on us».
May the force be with us, then. To the magnificent Twenty-One who entered Parliament on the morning of 25 June 1946veterans of terrible years and yet ready to start a new form of resistance, was certainly not lacking. «After all, feminism, in its various nuances, is nothing other than the desire for a more just and humane society, tailored to people, “without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinions or personal and social conditions“, as stated in the never-too-quoted article 3 of our splendid Constitution, which the events of the Constituent Mothers have taught us to defend, if necessary even with the lightsaber of the Jedi”.
Shall we applaud Serena Dandini?