Women's citizenship and the Constitution of the Italian Republic

Abstract

As is known, the path of women's emancipation, which developed during the twentieth century, found a fundamental turning point in democratic constitutions. This is of course due to the social and political changes of the second postwar period, but not only. Given that democratic constitutions represent a specific type of constitution built in opposition to the constitutional thought of the nineteenth century, the essay will demonstrate that assuming the widest women's citizenship is an inherent feature of constitutions of this kind. With particular reference to Italy, the essay is divided into two parts. The first shows two main constitutional changes that have been essential to the claim for women's citizenship: one related to the subject of law (from the individual to the person) and the other related to the principle of equality (from formal to substantial equality). The second part of the essay is dedicated to the dynamic aspect of the constitution, to its movement. Through the two engines of this movement - the normativity of the constitution and the political/representative element - it shows how the relationship between the constitution and women's citizenship runs both ways. If one of the constitution's aims is to empower women's citizenship, on the other hand the exercise of a full and conscious female political citizenship is a necessary condition for a healthy constitutional democracy.