12 May 1928, Mussolini ends women’s suffrage
May 12, in 1928, in a speech to the senate, Mussolini announced a
number of reforms to the government, and chief among them the end to
women’s suffrage. New laws also restricted the right to vote to only men
aged 21 and over, who would also have to pay syndicate rates or taxes
of 100 lire — no small amount in those days.
After Mussolini’s and Fascism’s fall, Italian women campaigned for
rights with equal fervor to their American counterparts, but did not get
as far. Italy’s current leader Silvio Berlusconi is a well-known and
devoted womanizer, and his attitude percolates through Italian society
as a whole. As Italian author Lorella Zanardo noted in a recent
interview with TIME magazine “Women on television are treated like pieces of prosciutto.”
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