From the home hearth to the factories and the front: the dedication of women ...
World War I brings radical change to Italian society. Men, the youngest and strongest, take up arms and leave for the front leaving not only wives, mothers and children but also hundreds of jobs. Factories, fields, telegraphs, industries and stores are left without labor.
The entire Italian economy is paralyzed, so women take the field. They leave the domestic hearth and enter the world of work, replacing, after a period of training, men in every profession, revealing themselves to be essential members of the community.
From the poorest women to the bourgeoisie, entire social classes begin to work. Peasant women who ensure the agricultural production needed to supply the country are awarded "agricultural merit awards".
In military war production factories, women are employed to the extent of 80 percent. Fundamental then is their employment in textile factories converted from the production of civilian clothes to uniforms or in schools to teach reading and writing to literate the people and keep them loyal, it is in fact up to them to instill in children the values of respect and attachment to the homeland with the curricula revolutionized in function of support for the war.
The presence of women is not new in fields and industries, but in this period their numbers are growing considerably, giving a new driving force to the Italian economy. We are facing the first steps on the road to gender equality and rights. But the push brought about by the war reveals in everyday life not a few difficulties for women. Mostly they are employed in factories with generic tasks preventing them from accessing specialized tasks designed and reserved exclusively for men. Also constituting the main obstacle is the self-righteous mentality of the elderly, left to guard homes and factories do not look kindly on the new role of women.
In 1908, the Crocerossine Corps was formed. Red Cross nurses at first are only girls from wealthy families, slowly women from all social classes and from all parts of Italy are added. At the front they have the role of officers and are responsible for caring for the sick and supporting the doctors.
Then there are the godmothers of war charged with keeping correspondence with soldiers, reading and writing for illiterate patients or in the distribution of newspapers. Women are then employed in administrative offices and put in charge of military vehicles.
The dismantling of wartime facilities and conversion to peace production brings mass layoffs for women, who are forced to leave their jobs to veterans.
However, the conflict radically changed women, making them more independent and aware of their abilities. Debates on the role of women began at all levels of society, aiming at valuing not only the devotion shown during the crisis period but an overall reassessment of their role. It will still take decades for the first real hints of equality between men and women, but in one of the nation's most difficult periods, women were able to demonstrate to society as a whole their essentiality.
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