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Post Attitudes Towards Divorce in Italy, 1950s and '60s
Created by John Eipper on 05/25/17 3:32 AM

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Attitudes Towards Divorce in Italy, 1950s and '60s (Roy Domenico, USA, 05/25/17 3:32 am)

I am literally writing on this topic--part of my manuscript on Catholic cultural politics in the 1950s and 1960s. So, if JE forgives me, I can strike here while the iron's hot.

As to the reasoning behind women's suspicion of divorce, a few issues. First, this is pre-feminist Italy. Most women were socially conservative. They followed Church teachings and voted Christian Democrat (DC). The two big arguments from the DC--often fronted by prominent DC women deputies--was that divorce victimized women by allowing the husbands to cut the ties and run; and it harmed the children. Remember, good Catholic wives were--ideally--mothers. All DC propaganda promoted "Mamma." In Italian mythology she's right up there with il Papa, San Francesco and Padre Pio.

When divorce went through at least the Catholics got a 5-year waiting period, later, I think, reduced to 3 in the 1980s. But still, divorce remains at pretty low levels in Italy, much lower than the US, and with a big stigma attached to it.

JE comments: Social causes can create unexpected bedfellows. We take it for granted that legal divorce is an issue of women's rights. But who are the "we"? Roy Domenico takes us to another time and place, in which an inviolable marriage was considered a good thing for women. The situation vis-à-vis divorce it Italy is somewhat parallel to the 19th-century feminist movement in the US, where prohibitionism was a goal almost as important as achieving the vote.