Women in CGIL

The General Confederation of Labor was born at the first Congress of Milan on 29 September - 1 October 1906: five hundred delegates, representing 700 leagues for a total of 250,000 members, proclaimed its constitution. Only one very famous photographic image of the constitutive Congress remains in history, taken at the Chamber of Labor in Milan by the Italo Pacchioni photographic studio (Corso Genova 20). The participants in the works are gathered in the large hall in via Crocifisso, now destroyed, under the inscription from the stage "Workers from all over the world unite!", Each one with his gaze turned to the photographer's lens.

Ladies, even those belonging to the middle classes, become technical executives in companies, sales representatives, conductors of trams, boys in cafes, factory workers, porters, postmen; in the photographs they are portrayed in the tasks once reserved for men and in the relative uniforms they appear proud, smiling, happy.

Living alone, going out alone, taking on certain responsibilities alone were things that now became finally possible for many, even if not always accepted without reserve by others.
Ugo Ojetti wrote in the Corriere della Sera in 1917: "The stream of women penetrates, gurgling and rustling, into the places of men: fields, factories ... Some, it is true, resemble to children, especially when they do not yet have any of their own: they get tired, get distracted, sigh, argue, stumble, strike, threaten, scream. But most of them, in short, work and are precious, and if you need them ... The woman is first of all a practical being whose social work is very useful ... ".

In addition to assisting the wounded and the sick and contribute to the collection of clothing, food and medicines, women participate by bringing their contribution to political and organizational meetings and on occasion they also know how to try their hand at weapons.
They cover all the roles: they are relay races - or more correctly, liaison officers - but they are also couriers, nurses, doctors, sutlers, seamstresses; they spread the clandestine press, they carry cartridges and explosives in the shopping bag, they are the animators of the strikes in the factories, they take care of the dead

. preparing first aid teams are just some of the tasks carried out with courage and tenacity by women, to which we must also add their political propaganda and information activities. Their contribution is not limited to direct actions: women participate in the great strikes in the North, moreover, they organize them, they replace their men when they ask for bread, clothes, coal, better conditions that mitigate the harshness of the armed conflict.
And they die in those demonstrations.

“The appeal - we read - was answered by the Italian women of factories and houses, cities and countryside, gathering and fighting. Groups arose and developed in large as well as small towns. In Milan there are twenty-four groups in the factories with about two thousand members; an equal number exists in Turin and Genoa. […] Groups of peasant women and housewives have sprung up in homes and schools; their action is coordinated by the women's committees of cities and villages, regional and provincial, around the directives indicated by the National Committee ". According to some calculations made by the Anpi, there were 35,000 fighting partisans, 20,000 patriots with functions support, 70,000 women belonging to the defense groups for the conquest of women's rights, about 5,000 women arrested, tortured and condemned by the fascist courts, about 3000 deported to Germany.
In the marches of 1945, however, of women if they see few. The resistance of women was not the same as that of men and for a long time it remained shrouded in silence. The photos of partisans with rifles today seem obvious, but for years they did not circulate.
After the Liberation the qualification of partisan is recognized to those who had carried weapons for at least three months and had carried out at least three acts of war or sabotage (or at least had done three months in prison or six months of work in the logistic structures ) '. This being the case, it was clear that a large number of resistant women were sidelined and that, except in exceptional cases, they could only talk about their contribution to the Resistance. There are only 19 Italian women decorated with the Gold Medal for Military Valor, including 15 in memory.

Coming from all over the peninsula, mostly married (14 out of 21) and with children, young and with educational qualifications (14 graduates), many had taken part in the Resistance, often paying personally and dearly for their choices, such as Adele Bei , sentenced in 1934 by the Special Court to 18 years in prison for anti-fascist activities, Teresa Noce, put in prison and then deported, Rita Montagnana. emancipation of women to overcome the many obstacles that made it difficult for women to participate in politics and beyond. Perhaps the most meaningful example of this work is the formulation of art. 3 of the Constitution.
In fact, Lina Merlin was responsible for introducing the term "sex" in the list of discriminations to be overcome and it was Teresa Mattei who wanted the fundamental addition "de facto" to the phrase "limiting the freedom and equality of citizens ", in the paragraph on the economic and social obstacles to be removed to allow the" development of the human person "and the participation of workers in the life of the country.

Particular attention is paid by them to the theme of the family, starting from from the equality of the spouses: during the works there will be quite a few clashes with most of the colleagues, who argued the need for a hierarchical system within the family and the obviousness that the husband was at the top. Another fundamental theme will be work: maternity protection, equal wages, equal opportunities in access to all professions will be the most debated topics.
All committed themselves to equality, including wages, denouncing the Commission of 75 any discriminatory attempt aimed at excluding women from extra-domestic work, such as the one that introduced the words 'essential family function' in the article concerning the protection of motherhood (law of 10 May 1947) or that which limited women's access to public careers .
Maria Federici, Nilde Iotti, Lina Merlin and Teresa Noce are always present at the sessions of the Constituent Assembly and are often rapporteurs and co-rapporteurs of the issues on the agenda. The constituents are united in the vote in favor of art. 11, relating to the repudiation of war as an instrument of offense to the freedom of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes, and even individually they promote important civil rights (for example Nadia Gallico Spano was the first to affirm the need to establish equality between children born inside and outside marriage and to delete the definition of 'children of NN' intended for the latter). Particularly heated will be the discussion regarding access for women to the judiciary, for which they were considered too emotional and sensitive. The choice of the constituents to put a double amendment to the vote managed to guarantee the result that women wanted to achieve: rejected that of Rossi - Mattei (120 votes out of 153), which explicitly declared the female right of access to all degrees of the Judiciary, passed , passed that of Federici which suppressed the limiting part of the article under discussion.
Maria Federici, Nilde Iotti, Lina Merlin and Teresa Noce are always present at the sessions of the Constituent Assembly and are often rapporteurs and co-rapporteurs of the issues on the agenda. The constituents are united in the vote in favor of art. 11, relating to the repudiation of war as an instrument of offense to the freedom of other peoples and as a means of resolving international disputes, and even individually they promote important civil rights (for example Nadia Gallico Spano was the first to affirm the need to establish equality between children born inside and outside marriage and to cancel the definition of 'children of NN' intended for the latter).

Di Vittorio himself at the First CGIL Congress of Liberated Italy, held in Naples in January 1945 declared "that an essential defect of our unions is the absence of women". To compensate for this absence, the 1945 Congress approved the establishment of a National Women's Commission. The Commission will be formalized two years later, at the Florence Congress in 1947.

Social conflicts are worsening in the country in a climate of increasingly heated political opposition. In the countryside the peasant protest is growing, manifesting itself with an imposing movement for the occupation of uncultivated lands and with harsh laborers' strikes. Many are the victims, starting with Giuditta Levato, killed on November 28, 1946 in Calabria, while Portella della Ginestra (1947) inaugurates the season of the massacres.

In the first half of the 1950s, the main claims of women in the field of work they are the implementation of the constitutional dictate on wage equality and the creation of maternity protection that guarantees not only better working conditions, but also a series of external support services (nursery schools, canteens, etc.). The law on the protection of working mothers, for which Teresa Noce had fought, will be approved in 1950.
The final text, albeit limiting with respect to the Noce proposal, represents an important result for Italian workers, but opens another facing claims; many companies, in fact, to circumvent the law, impose the so-called bachelorette clause on the employees, which provides for dismissal in the event of marriage. Also on the initiative of Teresa Noce in May 1952 the bill for the "Application of equal rights and equal pay for equal work" was presented to the Chamber, but the agreement on equality was reached only on July 16, 1960 relative to the industrial sectors only (women will obtain wage parity in agriculture in 1964).

In the early 1960s, the improvement in the working conditions of women led the CGIL to consider the experience of women's Commissions exhausted. The organizational corollary of this new approach is the establishment of a confederal sectoral office, not elective, flanked by a central council which includes grassroots militants and women leaders of the various categories

. 'beginning of 1968, while fruit and vegetables and those employed in the trade grow in number, succeeding in 1973 in achieving an excellent contractual result. However, starting from the early seventies there is a setback in the path towards emancipation and representation.
There is not even a woman in the Steering Committee of the newly formed CGIL-Cisl-Uil Federation. There was also little representation for women in the subsequent electoral round of the Bari Congress in 1973. There were 12 women elected to the General Council in 1973 (out of 211 members, equal to 5.68%); 2 in the Steering Committee (out of 64 members, equal to 3.1%). In an unfavorable general climate, however, the important achievement of the law on home work is achieved. Law 877/1973 replaces the previous law no. 264.

They are the workers of the Lebole of Arezzo, the cotton workers of the Cantoni group, the workers of the Dalmas of Bologna and of the Apollon of Rome, who go on strike, many for the first time, against piecework, for the abolition of the fourth category, for trade union rights in factories.

The workers and the wives of the workers supported with great force the weight of the exhausting struggle. When, in November 1969, tens of thousands of metalworkers peacefully invaded Rome to push Confindustria to sign the renewal of the national trade contract, the Flm ordered that the procession be opened by women, a strongly symbolic recognition of their protagonism. br>

In the Confederal Secretariat the percentage of women has gradually increased since 1986 until it becomes equal since 2002. With 1996, the year of the XIII Congress (Rimini, 2-5 July), the "Anti-discrimination law" takes on a binding nature and above all it is introduced without any reservation into the Confederal Statute (art. 6) establishing that "neither sex can be represented below 40% or above 60%".

Guglielmo Epifani will say on the occasion of the passage of the witness: “I want to send my heartfelt wishes - convinced and serene - to Susanna. Although the phase she is called to face with the new responsibility is really full of problems and hardships, I have no doubt that she will face them in the most serious, most appropriate way possible. He has the skills, the determination, the experience. He has your and my support. In CGIL you don't stay in the trenches for many years, in a position of responsibility for so long and so with respect, if you don't have the right qualities. Head and heart. Of knowledge and passion, of ability and determination.

We overcome an unacceptable delay, and together we also recognize the role that women have had in the history of the Italian working classes, those we recalled and studied during the our centenary. The laborers, the textiles, the teachers, the office workers, the workers and all the others up to the present day. And the many figures of this story: Argentina Altobelli, Lina Fibbi, Teresa Noce, Nella Marcellino, Donatella Turtura and you who are here in your roles and responsibilities. We win an important test, and we give a sign to the whole Italian society, to the continuous underestimation and discrimination of gender, to the role, to the use, to the abuse that is made of the woman and her body, to those who want to go back ".

"A right that was recognized in extremis - would specify Marisa Cinciari Rodano - on the last day useful for the composition of the electoral lists, at the end of January 1945, but which was not, as some maintain, a benevolent concession, but the due recognition of the decisive contribution that women, with weapons in hand and above all with widespread mass action, in support of the Resistance, had given to the liberation of the country ".
In the first half of the 1950s, the main demands of women in the field of work are the implementation of the constitutional dictate on equal pay and the creation of a maternity protection that guarantees not only better working conditions, but also a series of external support services (nursery schools, canteens, etc.).
The law on the protection of working mothers, for which Teresa Noce had fought, will be approved in 1950. The final text, albeit limiting with respect to the Noce proposal , represents an important result for Italian workers, but opens up another front of claims; in fact, many companies, in order to circumvent the law, impose the so-called bachelorette clause on the employees, which provides for dismissal in the event of marriage.
Again on the initiative of Teresa Noce in May 1952 the bill for the '"Application of equal rights and equal pay for equal work", but the agreement on equality will only be reached on July 16, 1960 in relation to the industrial sectors only (women will obtain equal wages in agriculture in 1964). br> Only in 1958 was the law on the protection of home work approved (also in 1958 the Merlin Law was approved on the abolition of prostitution regulation and the fight against the exploitation of prostitution of others), while the laws prohibiting dismissal were from 1963 of women in case of marriage and the admission of women to competitions to enter the judiciary.

Since 1981 women have been admitted to the police force, since 1999 to the armed forces. Also in 1981, the part of the law that attenuated the penalties for those who committed murder for love (the so-called 'honor killing') was repealed and the shotgun marriage according to which a rapist could avoid conviction by marrying the victim disappears. In 1996 - with the sole opposition of the Communist Refoundation Party - the new law on sexual violence was approved. Violence becomes a crime no longer against morality but against the person, the other cornerstones of the legislation are the exacerbation of penalties, the irrevocability of the complaint, alleged violence in relations with minors under 14. The 2013 law introduces compulsory arrest in case of maltreatment and stalking.

Before 1945-46 women were neither allowed to vote nor vote, a right recognized to them in extremis, on the last day for the settlement of the electoral lists at the end of January 1945.
In the first thirty years of the life of the Italian Republic the Councils of Ministers (thirteen in total) were composed exclusively of men: it was necessary to wait until 1976 for a woman, Tina Anselmi, to be appointed minister of Labor and Social Security by the then Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.
If we analyze the trend of the female presence it can be seen that it took 30 years to elect more than 50 women to Parliament (100 has been exceeded with the 10th legislature in 1987, and 150 with the 15th, in 2006). Only in five cases was the Presidency of the Chamber entrusted to a woman (Nilde Iotti for three legislatures, Irene Pivetti and Laura Boldrini), in only one case the Presidency of the Senate (Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati).

No woman has ever held the post of Minister of Economy and Finance. No woman has ever been invested with the office of Prime Minister or has ever been elected to the Presidency of the Republic. Considering that women in Italy represent more than half of the active electorate, 42% of workers, 57.2% of university graduates and 41% of national GDP production, one might ask: if not now, when?