Unexpected Alliances: Italian Women’s Struggles for Equal Pay, 1940s–1960s

In 1977, the Italian Parliament passed a law on “equal treatment between working women and men” which, in establishing complete equality between female and male workers, finally resolved the long-lasting issue of equal pay. Rather than being a product of 1970s feminist engagement, the 1977 law was the final step of a longer and more complex legislative process that arose in post-war Italy and peaked in the “economic boom” years (1958–1963). In those years, left-wing women’s associations, e.g. the Union of Italian Women (UDI), female trade unionists and politicians struggled for the implementation of the equality rights guaranteed by the Italian Constitution, especially equal pay. This chapter, in contrast, argues that the ratification of ILO’s Convention No. 100 provided a common and shared framework for the equal pay debate and women’s struggles, bringing together the various actors who had taken different and separate paths until the first half of 1950s. The ILO’s Convention influenced both the Italian legislative process and the collective agreements of the period from the late 1950s to the early 1960s.