The Republic of Women

This intellectual history uncovers the journey of twenty-one women who stepped into the Italian Constituent Assembly of 1946 and how these women coming from diverse political backgrounds united to embed principles of gender equality and political representation into Italy's post-war Constitution, with particular attention to labour rights and the economic dimension of equality. This volume explores the tension between women's growing workforce participation and their social invisibility; how experiences in the Risorgimento and the Resistance shaped a new political consciousness,; the cross-party collaboration that transcended deep ideological divides,; the cultural barriers they confronted within political parties and trade unions. It also examines why constitutional promises took decades to take effect and how the concept of civic feminism developed in these years as a form of political engagement in which women’s emancipation was inseparable from active participation in collective reconstruction. The Republic of Women: Civic Feminism and the Making of Equality in Italy will appeal to scholars, graduate students, and institutions working on gender and politics, as well as to readers with a broader interest in the relationship between constitutional design and women's citizenship in democratic societies.