The ‘woman question’ in Italy has always been linked with ideological issues. Women’s emancipation has been discussed in relation either to the Church, or Fascism, or
to conservative party politics, and to the role this party considered as appropriate for i
when women realised they were doing the same work o f men but were being paid less, when they started to be politically active during the years of the Risorgimento. On the one hand, it is true that a connection existed between the Risorgimento and early feminism. Cristina Belgioioso is a clear example o f this. She left the prince she had married when she was sixteen and used her money for political purposes. She helped Mazzini to go to Savoy, and she herself became the focal point for Italian exiles in Paris. She founded journals against the Austrian regime and she wrote articles in which she argued for broader social and educational chances for women. On the other hand and more commonly, the image o f the woman promoted during the Risorgimento was that o f the mother o f the nation. It will only be almost a hundred years later that the women's biological and reproductive functions ceased to be considered as the only features o f their role.
From a legal point o f view, with the introduction o f the new national Civil Code of 1856 things did not really change for women. A wife did not have economic independence from her husband, who, on the contrary, could dispose o f her property. A woman who strayed from her marriage was always found guilty o f adultery, whereas a man was considered guilty only if he brought his mistress into the conjugal home. Divorce was not considered at all, actually it was not introduced in Italy until 1970. The only novelty in the new Code was the introduction o f civil marriage, bitterly opposed by the Church. This Code, based as it was on a patriarchal conception o f woman’s role within the family, remained the basis o f Italian law until after the Second World War.
One o f the female writers of the period between unification and the 1920s was known as Neera (pseudonym of Anna Zuccari). She did not believe in the new socialist and feminist ideas, but dealt with the emotional unhappiness o f many bourgeois marriages. The other important female writers o f this period were Matilde Serao and Grazia Deledda, whose attitudes towards feminism were not clear. Their works are concerned with the objective picture o f the post-unification reality they lived in. Sibilla Aleramo can be considered the first Italian feminist writer. She emphasised the unbearable situation of many bourgeois marriages and claimed for equality and independence for women. She also focused on the necessity for women to create their own narrative spaces and voice.
At the beginning o f the 20'' century women’s associations began to be founded. The main concerns o f Italian feminists o f the time were the possibility o f women being admitted to every profession and the right to vote. They demanded maternity leave, regulation o f working conditions, and the closure o f brothels. However, Radical, Socialist, and Catholic feminists did not have the same opinions as far as family issues, such as divorce, were concerned. During the post-unification period, the woman question was dealt with only superficially by Parliament and by public opinion. All political parties opposed female suffrage, which was obtained only in 1944. The situation did not change with the First World War. With the arrival o f Fascism the women’s movement disappeared. The woman’s role promoted by Fascist ideology was that o f the mother of the nation, and women had to accept it. It was their contribution to the new imperialistic
nationalism. The role o f woman was that o f mother, as the role o f man was that o f soldier. Women writers o f the time reacted to this in two ways. Some o f them considered culture and literature as socially engaged, others did not. The most important writers were Natalia Ginzburg, Elsa Morante, Anna Maria Ortese, and Anna Banti. They all reached maturity as writers during the Fascist period and their representations o f reality were all different from one another. Ginzburg’s works, more than all the others, represent an age which is changing. Morante’s works deal with the difference between official history and the everyday small stories ignored by histoiy. Ortese reacted against neorealismo and gave a metaphorical representation o f the world. Banti reflected on history, on women as artists.
In recent years, with the post-war economic boom and with the intimations of revolution typical o f the European and American 60s, Feminism has been reborn in Italy. Women have organised their ‘consciousness-raising’ groups, and demanded specific social and political changes. The first problem to be faced was that o f divorce. The 1970s legislation included a divorce law, a reform o f family law so that equal rights were assigned to both parents, and a national plan for nurseries. In 1977 women were granted improved rights in the workplace, and their retirement age was raised to sixty-five. In
1978 abortion was legalised, though with some limitations.
From a cultural point o f view, the recent past has seen women organising their cultural space and discussing the connections between sexuality and textuality. They have put forward issues such as abortion, childcare, and legal reforms. The Centro Culturale
Virginia W oolf was founded in Rome, and women began to create their own publishing houses. The women’s movement in Italy was different from the American, British, or French movements, in the sense that it was not absorbed by the establishment. It is worth noting that university courses in Women’s Studies are not common in Italy, if they exist at all. Besides, Italian Feminism has not been characterised by literary and textual studies as in other Western countries. An important name in contemporaiy female literature is that o f Dacia Maraini, who writes consciously from the woman’s point o f view. Writers like her, therefore, challenge women to change their situation. In the 1980s a generation o f younger writers began to appear, and some o f them continue to analyse the area o f gender and sexual difference. Francesca Sanvitale and Fabrizia Ramondino, for instance, deal with the relationship between mothers and daughters. Others explore new topics and new forms for women’s writing. In recent years writing by women has become more and more successful.
This is the cultural context in which Anna Luisa Zazo developed her feminist reading o f The Mill on the Floss . Her interpretation o f the novel’s final scene is a good starting point for an analysis o f her essay. She emphasises that in the last scene the author allowed Maggie to give her brother a sign o f ‘the unconscious greatness o f her soul’.'’^ Zazo interprets this fact as the only triumph in the life o f a woman who was conditioned by a society characterised by ‘mean mles o f honesty and respectability’,''" by superficial
A.L. Zazo, Tntroduzione’. in G. Eliot II Mulino sulla Floss, Ed A.L. Zazo, Milano; Arnoldo