Generations of Italian Communist Women and the Making of a Women’s Rights Agenda in the Cold War (1945–68). Historiography, Memory, and New Archival Evidence

This chapter explores how diverse generations of Italian communist women contributed to creating a women’s rights agenda in the period 1945–68, before the rise of so-called second wave feminism. A women’s rights agenda was clearly implemented in postwar Italy, especially thanks to the role of communist women both within the party, in the Parliament, as well as in the Union of Italian Women (Unione Donne Italiane, UDI) and in the Italian General Confederation of Labor (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, CGIL). Women’s labor rights and welfare services were at the core of the emancipation project promoted by Italian communist women, which was part of a larger women’s rights agenda put forward worldwide by international women’s organizations such as the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF). As a matter of fact, Italian communist women had frequent contacts with communist women in Eastern Europe, Soviet Union, China. The latter influenced the Italians in establishing their own women’s rights agenda and vice versa, as Italians took part in the elaboration of a women’s rights agenda internationally, especially within, but not only, the WIDF.