«Sthey came the joy of finally being freeas Italians and as women, and that card on which uncertain or confident hands drew a cross was for them a symbol of democracy, freedom and aspirations finally realized». As Nilde Iotti remembered the first time women voted on 2 June 1946. But in Italy, as in many other countries, this conquest was not universal. Social class, education, ethnic origin, and even moral reputation continued to influence women’s access to the vote and, therefore, political participation. In some states, women’s suffrage was accompanied by targeted exclusions categories of women considered morally unworthy or incapable of exercising full citizenship. The history of women’s suffrage is therefore also the story of the women who remained excluded and were forced to continue their struggle in the minority.
The Italian case: registered prostitutes
In Italy the right to vote for women was recognized with Legislative Decree no. 23 of 1 February 1945. However, Article 3 of the provision provided for an important exception: they were excluded from voting registered prostitutes who practiced prostitution “outside authorized premises”. Despite being Italian citizens, these women were considered morally unworthy of participating in political life of the country. However, this discrimination was short-lived. The provision was in fact repealed in 1947, eliminating one of the first limitations to Italian women’s suffrage.
Women in mental hospitals
Among the categories that remained on the margins of political citizenship for a long time there were also women interned in mental hospitals. In fact, after the Second World War, Internment in these facilities was often accompanied by the loss or limitation of important civil and political rights for men and women. Electoral rules they excluded from voting people declared disqualified due to mental illness. In a time when psychiatry was strongly influenced by gender stereotypesinternment was a control tool: women judged rebellious, different, incompatible with dominant female models. The turning point came in 1978 with the so-called Basaglia law which put an end to the existence of mental asylums and returned the full citizenship to thousands of people who for decades had been segregated on the margins of society.
African American women in the United States
The August 18, 1920 was ratified on XIX Amendment of the United States Constitutionwhich prohibited any discrimination based on sex in access to the vote. The date represents a milestone in the history of American women’s emancipation. For millions of African American women, however, that right long remained a utopia. In some Northern and Western States, as California, Illinois and New Yorkmany black women were actually able to vote. In the Southern States, however, the Racial segregation continued to prevent access to the polls. Many African American activists were forced to organize a new autonomous mobilization just as the main suffragist organizations were disbanding, convinced that they had now achieved their goal.
The turning point came only on August 6, 1965when the president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The law prohibited racial discrimination in the exercise of the right to vote, abolished literacy tests and other tools used to exclude non-white voters. Almost fifty years after the 19th Amendment, the right to vote finally became effective for millions of African-American women.
Indigenous women
THE’Australia is often remembered as one of the Pioneer countries of women’s suffrage. After the New Zealandwhich he introduced the vote for women in 1893was among the first states in the world to recognize women not only the right to vote, but also the right to run for Parliament. This achievement, however, did not concern all women. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women were long excluded from full political participation. Only in 1962 they gained the right to vote in federal elections. However, formal inclusion did not eliminate profound social and economic inequalities which continue to affect indigenous communities today. The Australian case shows well how the legal recognition of rights does not necessarily coincide with a real condition of equality.
The achievement of merit
In many countries access to the vote was based on education level, income and social status. Criteria that also discriminated men, but they especially affected womenhistorically with less access to education and property. In CanadaIn the 1917, the right to vote was recognized only to Euro-Canadian women belonging to the armed forces or close relatives of soldiers engaged in the war. The native populations, men and women, they had to wait until 1960. In the United KingdomIn the 1918, Only women over thirty, wives of heads of families, landladies with a minimum income or graduates from British universities could vote.. Full equality with men only came in 1928. In BelgiumIn the 1919the female vote was reserved for categories considered “deserving”: widows and mothers of fallen soldiers, women victims of war or political prisoners.
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