Benito Mussolini’s Feminism

Benito Mussolini’s Feminism

In the manifesto of the Fasci italiani di Combattimento, published in Benito Mussolini’s newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia, female suffrage was advocated, earning him the approval of feminists of the time—the so-called suffragettes. Mussolini forced his mistress, Bianca Ceccato, who was his personal secretary at Il Popolo d'Italia, to abort the two children she conceived with him.
Mussolini participated in the 1922 Feminist Congress in Rome, delivering a speech in favor of women's active political participation. Welcomed by suffragettes Margherita Ancona and Alice Schiavoni Bosio, he attended the Ninth Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1923, where he pledged to grant Italian women the right to vote in municipal elections. Mussolini praised the composed attitude of Italian suffragettes, and that same year, a bill was introduced proposing to extend limited municipal voting rights to the nation's heroines, mothers or widows of fallen soldiers, and wealthy or educated women.
In the 1924 elections, women gained the right to vote, and in 1925, a law came into force officially recognizing Italian women as voters in the administrative sphere for the first time. Mussolini also incorporated the miniskirt into school uniforms for girls, as evidenced by footage from the Istituto Luce. The miniskirt is a garment that emerged from feminist movements.
Mussolini also institutionalized women's sports in Italy, another feminist cause. In fact, in November and December of 1933, he once again clashed with the Catholic Church over female athletes wearing shorts and being photographed in them by the national press. The Mussolini government both imposed and promoted the image of the athletic woman as a model of the fascist woman.

REFERENCES:
https://www.ansa.it/canale_lif....estyle/notizie/socie
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_Fascista
https://www.centriantiviolenza.....eu/bollettinodiguer
https://www.libertaepersona.or....g/wordpress/2022/04/
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/....Benito_Mussolini#Mus
https://www.ansa.it/canale_lif....estyle/notizie/socie
https://rivista.clionet.it/vol....3/giani-le-scandalos