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GROUP PORTRAIT: THE ISPETTRICI NAZIONALI OF THE ITALIAN FASCIST PARTY, 1937–1943

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2017

PERRY WILLSON
PERRY WILLSON*
Affiliation:
University of Dundee
*
School of Humanities (History), University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HNp.r.willson@dundee.ac.uk
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Abstract

The 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.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 431 - 451
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

1 Two works that do look at female fascist hierarchs are Dittrich-Johansen, Helga, Le ‘militi dell'idea’: storia delle organizzazioni femminili del Partito Nazionale Fascista (Florence, 2002)Google Scholar; and De Grazia, Victoria, How fascism ruled women: Italy, 1922–1945 (Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA, and Oxford, 1992)Google Scholar. Neither work focuses specifically on the ispettrici nazionali, although both discuss some of them.

2 See, for example, Innocenti, Marco, Le signore del fascismo: donne in un mondo di uomini (Milan, 2001)Google Scholar. One exception is Vicini, Sergio, Fasciste: la vita delle donne nel ventennio Mussoliniano (Bresso, 2009)Google Scholar, which does mention some ispettrici.

3 On early fascist women, see Bartoloni, Stefania, Il fascismo e le donne nella ‘Rassegna femminile italiana’, 1925–1930 (Rome, 2012)Google Scholar; Detragiache, Denise, ‘Il fascismo femminile da San Sepolcro all'affare Matteotti (1919–1925)’, Storia contemporanea, 14 (1983), pp. 211–51Google Scholar. On the FF more generally, see Dittrich-Johansen, Le ‘militi dell'idea’; Willson, Perry, ‘Italy’, in Passmore, Kevin, ed., Women, gender and fascism in Europe, 1919–1945 (Manchester and New Brunswick, NJ, 2003)Google Scholar. There are also some local studies such as Sara Follacchio, Il fascismo femminile nel pescarese, published as a special issue of Abruzzo Contemporaneo, 13 (2001).

4 On fascism and masculinity, see Bellassai, Sandro, ‘The masculine mystique: anti-modernism and virility in fascist Italy’, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 10 (2005), pp. 314–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Spackman, Barbara, Fascist virilities: rhetoric, ideology and social fantasy in Italy (Minneapolis, MN, and London, 1996)Google Scholar.

5 On these organizations, see Willson, Perry, Peasant women and politics in fascist Italy: the massaie rurali (London and New York, NY, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Willson, Perry, ‘Italian fascism and the political mobilisation of working-class women, 1937–1943’, Contemporary European History, 22 (2013), pp. 65–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 The role of the FF on the Second World War home front has yet to be studied. On the civilian mobilization for war, see Ferrazza, Paola, ‘La mobilitazione civile in Italia 1940–1943’, Italia contemporanea, 214 (1999), pp. 21–42Google Scholar. On the Ethiopian War, see Willson, Perry, ‘Empire, gender and the “home front” in fascist Italy’, Women's History Review, 16 (2007), pp. 487–500CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Foglio di disposizioni (FD) 1084, 8 June 1938, Atti del Pnf, a.XVI (Rome, 1937–8). The Atti del Pnf are collections of party circulars and sheets of ‘orders’ and ‘dispositions’ (ordered chronologically) relating to each ‘fascist year’ (starting on 28 Oct.). The numbering starts afresh with each new party secretary.

8 FD 1431, 11 Oct. 1939, Atti, a.XVII (1938–9).

9 See typed note from Giovanni Montefusco, dated 9 Oct. 1940, in Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio Nazionale, Servizi Vari, Serie II (ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII), b. 10, fasc. ‘Clara Franceschini’. Ispettrici who were also fiduciaries similarly just had their provincial pay topped up to the higher ispettrice rate.

10 FD 719, 19 Jan. 1937, Atti, a.XV (1936–7).

11 PNF, Fasci Femminili, Sezione Massaie Rurali, Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio. Regolamenti (Rome, 1939–40), p. 6Google Scholar.

12 Gentile, Emilio, ‘The problem of the party in Italian fascism’, Journal of Contemporary History, 19 (1984), pp. 251–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 261.

13 De Grazia, How fascism ruled women, p. 265.

14 Ibid., p. 268.

15 Less convincing is her assertion that ‘The men in charge, first and foremost Starace, dictated the little details as well: from the fabric to be used for uniforms to the stitches designing the banner and flame on the SOLD's neckerchiefs' (ibid., p. 268). Starace was indeed very interested in the details of uniforms (for both sexes) but the SOLD neckerchiefs had neither flames nor banners. Instead, they featured the fascio littorio and, repeatedly, the word DUCE. (For a description of the neckerchief, see Pochino, Alba, ‘Il fazzoletto distintivo’, Lavoro e Famiglia, 1 (Apr. 1938), p. 3Google Scholar.)

16 FD 42, 10 Jan. 1941, Atti, a.XIX (1940–1).

17 FD 865, 10 Sept. 1937, Atti, a.XV (1936–7).

18 FD 897, 5 Nov. 1937, Atti, a.XVI (1937–8).

19 FD 1270, 24 Feb. 1939, Atti, a.XVII (1938–9).

20 The reasons for this are unclear but an unsigned letter, headed only Milano, 23 Nov. 1939, describes her as inefficient and hard to work with (ACS, PNF, Situazione Politica ed Economica delle Province (SPEP), b. 6, fasc. ‘Milano’). She was Milanese provincial fiduciary 1935–40. Her appointment as ispettrice was announced in FD 1450, 30 Oct. 1939, Atti, a.XVIII (1939–40).

21 FD 27, 24 Dec. 1939, Atti, a.XVIII (1939–40).

22 FD 20, 7 Dec. 1939, Atti, a.XVIII (1939–40). She claimed PNF membership since 20 Mar. 1926.

23 FD 61, 24 Jan. 1940, Atti, a.XVIII (1939–40). On her, see ACS, Segreteria Particolare del Duce–Carteggio Ordinario (hereafter SPD–CO), 210.898, fasc. ‘Oddone Mazza, Ing. Filippo, Console Generale della Milizia, Novara’.

24 FD 96, 7 Mar. 1940, Atti, a.XVIII (1939–40).

25 FD 182, 23 Aug. 1940, Atti, a.XVIII (1939–40). Abruzzese does not appear to have previously been a fiduciary but she seems to have taught at the party's social work college given that her publications included Guida per le assistenti sociali: lezioni tenute alla Scuola Superiore di assistenza sociale del PNF l'anno 1937–1938 (Rome, 1939)Google Scholar.

26 FD 42, 10 Jan. 1941, Atti, a.XIX (1940–1).

27 After patriotic service in the Great War, many Red Cross nurses rallied to fascism. On this, and on the gradual ‘fascistization’ of the organization, see Bartoloni, Stefania, ‘Da una guerra all'altra: le infermiere della Croce Rossa fra il 1911 e il 1945’, in Goglia, L., Moro, R., and Nuti, L., eds., Guerra e pace nell'Italia del novecento: politica estera, cultura politica e correnti dell'opinione pubblica (Bologna, 2006)Google Scholar.

28 FD 246, 6 Dec. 1941, Atti, a.XX (1941–2). On her, see ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b. 11, fasc. ‘Eramo Gozzi, Lina’; ACS, SPEP, b. 4, fasc. ‘Mantova’, ‘Situazione gerarchica’; ACS, SPD–CO, 524.215 ‘Mantova colonie Marine e Montane’.

29 FD 19, 18 June 1943, Atti, a.XX1 (1942–3).

30 On her, see Dittrich-Johansen, Helga, ‘Strategie femminili nel ventennio fascista: la carriera politica di Piera Gatteschi Fondelli nello “Stato degli uomini” (1919–1943)’, Storia e problemi contemporanei, 21 (1998), pp. 65–86Google Scholar.

31 On Guido Pallotta, see Grandi, Aldo, Il gerarca con il sorriso: l'archivio segreto di Guido Pallotta, protagonista dimenticato del fascismo (Milan, 2010)Google Scholar. See pp. 29–30 on Pia Garzia Civico herself: a ‘fascist of the first hour’ with wartime Red Cross experience.

32 Letter from Segretario Federale Sergio Pinotti, dated 16 Nov. 1940, in ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, Carteggio con le Federazioni Provinciali (CFP), b. 1158, fasc. 55 Federazione dei Fasci di Combattimento di Mantova ‘Pratica personale della fiduciaria provinciale dei FF.FF’.

33 Letter from Giovanni Montefusco to the fascist federation of Bergamo, 2 Dec. 1942, in ACS, CFP, b. 880, fasc. 173 ‘Pratica personale della fiduciaria provinciale dei Fasci Femminili’. She only donated L.700, the top-up as ispettrice to her provincial fiduciary pay-packet.

34 ACS, SPD–CO 516.126.

35 See Gissi, Alessandra, ‘Olga Medici del Vascello’, in Roccella, Eugenia and Scaraffia, Lucetta, eds., Italiane, ii: Dalla prima guerra mondiale al secondo dopoguerra (Rome, 2004)Google Scholar. See also ACS, SPD–CO 184.815. Olga Leumann's grandfather Isacco was a self-made man who had been a simple weaver when he immigrated to Italy from Switzerland.

36 A curriculum vitae for Nestore Carosi Martinozzi is conserved in ACS, SPD–CO 509.504/3.

37 On this point, see Cardoza, Anthony, Aristocrats in bourgeois Italy: the Piedmontese nobility, 1861–1930 (Cambridge, 1997), p. 222Google Scholar.

38 Lists of fiduciaries appear in various issues of the annually published Almanacco della donna italiana. Some of the lists contain titles. See, for example, the 1932 and 1933 issues.

39 On this point, see Dittrich-Johansen, Helga, ‘Le professioniste del Pnf: un “aristocrazia del comando” agli ordini del Duce’, Studi Storici, 42 (2001), pp. 181–202Google Scholar, at p. 190.

40 Dittrich-Johansen, Helga, ‘Per la patria e per il Duce: storie di fedeltà femminili nell'Italia fascista’, Genesis, 1 (2002), pp. 125–56Google Scholar, at p. 154.

41 Anon., ‘Delegazione di Roma’, Almanacco della donna italiana 1932 (Florence, 1932), pp. 324–5Google Scholar. On her, see also Anon., ‘Luisa Federzoni’, Almanacco della donna italiana 1933 (Florence, 1933), pp. 30–2Google Scholar.

42 ‘Elvina Pallavicini’, in Artom, Sandra and Calabrò, Anna Rita, eds., Sorelle d'Italia: quattordici grandi signore raccontano la loro (e la nostra) storia (Milan, 1989), p. 237Google Scholar.

43 Anon., ‘Delegazione di Roma’, p. 324.

44 Her wartime publications included pamphlets like Il nostro dovere (parole alle donne) (Milan, 1916)Google Scholar and A noi, donne…: (per il fronte interno) (Milan, 1917)Google Scholar, which, in their passionate tone and emphasis on ‘moral resistance’ – the need for women to adopt a new mentality and behaviour to support the nation – prefigure many themes of fascist propaganda.

45 ‘Stato personale Laura Argnani in Marani’, in Archivio dell'Istituto Superiore Statale ‘Matilde di Canossa’, b. ‘Personale insegnante che non è più nell'Istituto’, fasc. ‘Preside Marani e seguenti fino al 1934–1935’.

46 Molinari, Augusta, Donne e ruoli femminili nell'Italia della Grande Guerra (Milan, 2008), p. 32Google Scholar.

47 Terhoeven, Petra, Oro alla patria: donne, guerra e propaganda nella giornata della fede fascista (Bologna, 2006), p. 241Google Scholar.

48 She left after completing only two of the three terms of study in 1922–3. See the correspondence in Bedford College Archive, Royal Holloway, 3307A. See also the report on this course in the British Journal of Nursing (14 July 1923), p. 27, which lists her as receiving only a ‘Special Certificate’.

49 De Grazia, How fascism ruled women, p. 262.

50 Dittrich-Johansen, Le ‘mil iti dell'idea’, p. 153.

51 Guidi, Maria, ‘Fasci femminili’, Almanacco della donna italiana 1936 (Florence, 1936), p. 300Google Scholar.

52 FD 728, 28 Jan. 1937, Atti, a.XV (1936–7). It is possible that De Grazia has confused them with the (small numbers of) social workers who, after training in the party's own scuola superiore fascista per assistenti sociali, were employed by the corporative organizations or private firms.

53 Dittrich-Johansen, ‘Le professioniste del Pnf’, p. 200.

54 Ibid., p. 196.

55 The decision to pay provincial fiduciaries was announced with a circular dated 30 Sept. 1940. If they had another job, as a teacher, for example, and could get a paid secondment, they were paid only the difference between the two salaries. A copy of this circular is conserved in ACS, CFP, b. 862, fasc. ‘Federazione di Bari. Singoli fascicoli del personale ordinati alfabeticamente’. In Nov. 1940, the minimum for federali (male fascist leaders in each province) was L.3,000. With annual increments and a bonus for larger provinces, some got L.8,000 per month. Provincial fiduciaries' pay, in contrast, ranged between L.1,000–3,500. They also got lower daily expenses rates (circular of 25 Nov. 1940, in ibid., b. 820, Federazione dei Fasci di Combattimento di Ancona, fasc. ‘Pratica personale della fiduciaria provinciale dei fasci femminili’).

56 On the technical leaders and the college, see Willson, Peasant women and politics, ch. 7.

57 On Franceschini, see ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b. 10, fasc. ‘Clara Franceschini’.

58 See the letter from her to Giovanni Marinelli, dated 8 Jan. 1937, in ACS, PNF, DN, SV, SII, b. 37, fasc. ‘Angiola Moretti’. She earned quite well during this time. In 1933, for example, the party paid her L.1,650 monthly in addition to nearly 2,000 from her teaching job, an excellent income for a woman (ibid.). She lost the party job on 26 Oct. 1936.

59 The following information on her is taken from a curriculum vitae (dated 1937) and various letters in ACS, SPD–CO, 548.001.

60 See Dittrich-Johansen, ‘Le professioniste del Pnf’.

61 On this particularly dedicated fascist, see Willson, Perry, ‘“The fairy-tale witch”: Laura Marani Argnani and the women's fasci of Reggio Emilia 1929–1940’, Contemporary European History, 15 (2006) pp. 23–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 On Wanda Gorjux Bruschi, see Santarelli, E., ‘Protagoniste femminili del primo novecento’, Problemi del socialismo, 4 (1976), pp. 236–7Google Scholar. See also ACS, CFP, b. 862, fasc. ‘Federazione di Bari. Singoli fascicoli del personale ordinati alfabeticamente’, s.fasc. ‘Pratica personale della fiduciaria provinciale. Wanda Gorjux Bruschi’.

63 FD 159, 5 Jan. 1943, Atti, a.XXI (1942–3).

64 A Nationalist who had lent his support to fascism, Luigi Federzoni was appointed minister of the interior during the Matteotti crisis as Mussolini attempted to reassure the critics of fascist violence. During the 1930s, he held various positions, including being president of the Senate, but was never again admitted to fascism's inner circles. Much has been written about him. See, for example, Vittoria, Albertina, ‘Federzoni, Luigi’, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, xlv (Rome, 1995)Google Scholar, ad vocem; Grand, Alexander De, The Italian Nationalist Association and the rise of fascism in Italy (Lincoln, NB, 1978)Google Scholar.

65 On Wanda and her husband Raffaele, see, for example, Cimmino, Alessandra, ‘Raffaele Gorjux’, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, lviii (Rome, 2002)Google Scholar, ad vocem.

66 ‘Il memoriale di Piera Gatteschi Fondelli’, in Garibaldi, Luciano, Le soldatesse di Mussolini (Milan, 1995), pp. 31–89Google Scholar. In this memoir, she asserts (inaccurately) that she became an ispettrice nazionale in 1940 (p. 38).

67 Mietto, Marco and Ruggerini, Maria Grazia, ‘“Faber est suae quisque fortunae”: gli studenti del Liceo Classico e dell'Istituto Magistrale a Reggio Emilia, negli anni trenta’, Contributi, 11 (1987), pp. 229–391Google Scholar, at p. 323.

68 Terhoeven, Oro alla patria, p. 370n.

69 Guido Menzinger, interviewed by Petra Terhoeven in 1999 (ibid., p. 242).

70 Ibid., p. 241.

71 Barbara Palombelli, ‘Noi, la famiglia Federzoni. Papà disse no a Mussolini’, Corriere della Sera (5 Mar. 2001), p. 20.

72 Dittrich-Johansen, Le ‘militi dell'idea’, pp. 230–1.

73 Gorjux, Wanda, ‘Vita della donna fascista’, Almanacco della donna italiana, 1938 (Florence, 1938), pp. 21–3Google Scholar.

74 d'Olivola, Ignazia Cavalli, ‘Alle massaie della provincia di Torino’, in Cantoni, Ida Lupo, ed., Per te massaia custode del focolare (Turin, 1938), p. 5Google Scholar.

75 Wanda Gorjux Bruschi, ‘Professioni della donna’, Il giornale della donna, xv (15 Feb. 1933), pp. 1–2.

76 Argnani, Laura Marani, ‘La donna nel fascismo: lezione tenuta all'Istituto Fascista di Cultura di Reggio Emilia – 9 marzo 1935’, Annuario del R. Istituto Magistrale ‘Principessa di Napoli’ in Reggio Emilia (1933–4), p. 88Google Scholar.

77 ACS, Ministero dell'Interno, Divisione Generale di Pubblica Sicurezza, Divisione Affari Riservati, Polizia Politica, fascicoli personali, b. 524, fasc. ‘Franceschini Carla’. Pro-memoria 7 Sept. 1943.

78 Fraddosio, Maria, ‘La mobilitazione femminile: i Gruppi fascisti repubblicani femminili e il SAF’, Annali della Fondazione Luigi Micheletti, 2 (1986), pp. 257–74Google Scholar, at p. 261n.

79 Quartermaine, Luisa, Mussolini's last republic: propaganda and politics in the Italian Social Republic, 1943–1945 (Exeter, 2000), p. 47Google Scholar.

80 Diary of Andreola Vinci Gigliucci, entry for 8 Mar. 1944 in Perini, Alessandro, ed., I diari di Babka, 1943–1944: aristocrazia antifascista e missioni segrete (Raleigh, NC, 2007), p. 123Google Scholar.

81 Gino Badini, ‘La donna? Ai fornelli’, Il Resto del Carlino, 28 Dec. 1982, p. 3.

82 Santarelli, ‘Protagoniste femminili’, pp. 236–7.

83 For example, Dora Budi, who became provincial fiduciary in Bergamo in 1942, had previously been a clerk for the Ravenna FF Federation. ACS, CFP, b. 880, fasc. 173 ‘Pratica personale della fiduciaria provinciale dei fasci femminili’. There is similar example in ibid., b. 1158.

84 On these female parliamentarians, see Tambor, Molly, The lost wave: women and democracy in post-war Italy (New York, NY, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 Garofalo, Anna, L'italiana in Italia (Bari, 1956), p. 105Google Scholar.