Nuova DWF. Donna Woman Femme
Quaderni di studi internazionali sulla donna
Roma, Coines Edizioni, then Editrice coop. UTOPIA, 1976-1985

La piccola fronda. Politics and culture in the emancipationist press (1861-1924), 1982, n. 21

EDITORIAL, pp. 3-6

"La piccola fronda" ("The Little Fronde") is the name of a suffragist journal of which only a few issues - now untraceable - were circulated in 1904. It has been chosen as a title for this issue devoted to a first inquiry and attempt at interpretation of a rich and complex means of political expression - the press. Periodical publications are invaluable in helping to outline changes and continuities in the cultural-political message, as they are a remarkable expression of political groups and movements. Analysing the emancipationist press from 1861 to 1924, it is possible to retrace questions on the relationship women-society similar to those which are being raised now.

BUTTAFUOCO Annarita, "Disdain those who laugh". Politics and culture in the periodicals of the women's rights movement in Italy, pp. 7-34

This article examines the periodicals of the "lay" women's rights movement (i.e. neither denominational nor linked to political parties) between the end of the l9th and the beginning of the 20th century. Particularly, it analyses the attempt of the editors of those magazines to produce a culture which would both emphasise the traditional feminine values and also work out a model of a "new woman", extremely active in carrying out her duties as well as claiming her rights. Love, marriage, and motherhood are the basic categories to be renewed according to the activists of the women's rights movement in the beginning of the 20th century. However, while there is a strong, almost revolutionary connotation to the first definition of "emancipated" motherhood towards the renewal of the family and the feminine identity, later on, as a general involution marks all the rising movements, the idea of motherhood is burdened by "biological" references which deprive it of its original significance. This article also analyses the commitment of the women's rights activists to the creation of specialised libraries and to the "feminist" schools.

DE LONGIS Rosanna, Science as politics: "Vita femminile" (1895-1897), pp. 35-51

"Vita femminile" stands out among all the other periodicals of the women's rights movement for its strictly egalitarian spirit. Edited mainly by socialist feminists, "Vita femminile" seems to be highly interested in the scientific definition of the feminine characters given by positivism, in the claim for women's right to work as a component of their progress, in the connections between class and sex struggle. Condition of the egalitarian radicalism of this periodical is its almost complete disregard of motherhood and its specific implications.

BIGARAN Maria Pia, For a new woman. Three periodicals of socialist propaganda for women, pp. 53-72

This article is an analysis of the first socialist periodicals for women published in the beginning of the 20th century: "Eva" (1901-1903), "La donna socialista" (1905), "Su compagne!" (1911). They aimed at the diffusion of socialism and the party political line, and at the same time at the proposal of new values and behaviours for women. The readers of "Eva" were the militants of the peasant leagues of the Po valley and, in general, all the peasant women, among which it meant to spread a consciousness of social evolution and freedom from exploitation through socialist tenets. The ideal woman featured by this paper is that of a wife and mother who is at the same time a worker and a producer of social wealth. Not bound to any specific group of readers and less rooted to any local and organised reality, "La donna socialista" outlines an image of women as aware partners of men, devoted mainly to the role of motherhood, the modernisation of which is encouraged by this magazine through medical and hygienic advice. An interest in motherhood and child rearing as women's privileged activities is asserted in the few issues published of "Su compagne!", in which women are never considered as autonomous political subjects.

BUTTAFUOCO Annarita - DE LONGIS Rosanna (edited by), Women's political press (1861-1924), pp. 73-100

An annotated catalogue of women's periodicals founded between 1861 and 1924, and dealing with political, educational and trade union matters. Professional periodicals targeted at specific groups of women workers are not included, nor are fashion and entertainment periodicals, except when dealing, though occasionally, with political themes.

BUTTAFUOCO Annarita, The "Unione Femminile" (1901-1905), pp. 101-141

The author outlines the history of the periodical "Unione Femminile" using material from the Majno Archives. Drawing mostly upon the collection of Majno's letters, she retraces the origin and development of the periodical, and the role of its founder Ersilia Majno in envisaging it as a means for the "practical feminism" she advocated. Buttafuoco analyses the position of "Unione Femminile" on motherhood and suffrage, its relationships with the readers and contributors, as well as with other Italian and foreign periodicals, she also looks at the financial and managerial problems.

BARTOLONI Stefania, Fascist women and their press: the "Rassegna Femminile Italiana" (1925-1930), pp. 143-169

An outline of the first autonomous attempt to produce a fascist Women's periodical, rooted in emancipationist experiences; the experiment was driven by a true political passion, evident not only in the periodicals founder Elisa Majer Rizzioli, but in the relevant participation and high number of contributions to the bulletin in its first year. Later the periodical, and women's fascism, would be more strictly controlled by the party and would accept to conform totally renouncing autonomy.