Dbq Italy's Population Policy

501 Words3 Pages
Mussolini’s parliamentary decree gave protection to women and their children while becoming overly involved in child bearing. The policy, coming about in the 1920’s, was very controversial. Overall though there were only three main reactions; those against it, those devoted to it, and then there were those who didn’t have an opinion and just went with facts. Though some were devoted, some felt it an invasion of privacy and unethical. Gaetano Salvemini wrote in his article “Do Italian Women Obey Mussolini?” that slender women had fewer children than bigger women. So, in the eyes of Mussolini they are dead. (Doc. 4) Although if you take into consideration the fact that he was a political refugee, his statement was very much biased. Ironically, Edda Mussolini, daughter of Benito Mussolini, was also against his policy. She hated the number and rate of kids she was expected to have. Though she didn’t voice her complaints at the time of her father’s rule, she did years later in her memoir. (Doc. 7) Taking into account her linage, her opinion is in no way biased. Being his daughter you’d expect her to comply with her father’s wishes and agree with them. Obviously, that was not the case. Unlike some women she felt she shouldn’t be forced into having kids only to satisfy Italy’s declining population. L.D.B sent a letter to Edda Mussolini pleading for her help in caring for her eleven children. She went on to write that her husband served in the military and she could not care for such a large family on her own. Signing it “Your most devoted,” she hoped that the direct letter would get a response. (Doc 10) In a speech that was given by Mussolini himself in 1934,if a woman works then she deprives man of honor, respect and the very core of his being that was ripped away when women took independence and began modernizing. (Doc. 5) Paolo Orano, a journalist, quoted Dr.
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