"Italian Fascism & the Political Mobilisation of Working-Class Women 1937-43"
Perry Willson
University of Dundee
Contemporary European History
2013
The Sezione Operaie e Lavoranti a Domicilio dei Fasci Femminili (Section of the Fascist
Women’s Groups for Female Workers and Outworkers) is the only one of the three Italian
Fascist Party organisations for adult women that has never been studied. Founded in 1937
and recruiting factory workers, outworkers and domestic servants, it achieved a membership
of almost a million by the fall of the regime in 1943. A top-down organisation, run by the
largely middle-class Fasci Femminili, it offered its membership a mix of social, educational and
professional opportunities. This article explores its activities, its organisational structure, the
messages it attempted to convey to its membership and the reasons why such large numbers of
women joined.
PDF Link: http://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/portal/fi ... llson1.pdf
