spect were our superiors, was useful to us. While we were still under foreign domination and ignorant of solidarity of sex, they were free and united.” The new political life produced a number of able women orators and writers, such as Anna Mozzoni, Malvina Frank, Gualberta Beccari, and many others. The last named founded at Venice La Donna, and in 1872 Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna established in Florence La Cornelia, which has since ceased to exist, while in 1882 Ernesta Napollon began at Naples the publication of the short-lived L’Umanitario, the youngest of a goodly list of journals which have done much to excite an interest in the woman question. The Italian government has generously seconded the efforts of the reformers. The code has been modified, schools have been established, the universities thrown open and courses in agriculture proposed.
But the most significant sign of progress in Italy was afforded by the great universal suffrage convention, held at Rome on February 11, 12, 1881. Anna Mozzoni, delegate to the convention from the Milan Society for the Promotion of Woman’s Interests, of which she is the able president, made an eloquent appeal for woman suffrage and introduced a resolution to this effect which was carried by a good majority.See the Index, of Boston, May 19, 1881, where I give in full this remarkable speech. In 1876 a committee of the Chamber, of which the deputy Peruzzi was chairman, reported a bill in favor of conferring on women the right to vote on municipal and provincial questions (voto amministrativo), a privilege which they had formerly enjoyed in Lombardy and Venice under Austrian rule. This bill was reintroduced in 1882 by the Depretis ministry and was reported upon favorably by the proper committee in June, 1884. It is believed that the proposition will soon become a law. If such is the case, Italian women will enjoy the same rights as Italian men in municipal and provincial affairs, with this exception, that they will not be eligible to office in the bodies of which they are electors.[1] Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna, says:
I make no doubt that in a few years the question of the emancipation of women in Italy will be better understood; will be regarded from a more elevated standpoint and will receive a more general and greater support ; for if we turn to the past, we shall be astonished at what has already been accomplished in this direction.
- ↑ What is said of Austria in this respect further on in this chapter will apply to Italy if the proposed reform is finally accepted by parliament.
