Catholic Women's Movements in Liberal and Fascist Italy [Hardcover]

In the early 1900s the Catholic Church appealed, for the first time in its history, directly to women to reassert its religious, political and social relevance in Italian society. This book examines how the highly successful conservative Catholic women's movements that followed, and how they mobilized women against secular feminism.Introduction 1. The Italian State, the Catholic Church and Women 2. The Cultural, Political and Ideological Context of femminismo cristiano 3. Femminismo cristiano 4. The Radicalization of femminismo cristiano in Elisa Salerno 5. The Conservative Catholic Women's Movements ConclusionHelena Dawes is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. Her research interests lie in Italian history, particularly women and fascism.