LIFE IN FASCIST ROME
The Fascist Family
Fascist policy was geared toward population increase. In the pre-nuclear age, population was equated to power among the nations of the world. In Mussolini's fascist Italy, Policies which the Fascist regime implemented to encourage reproduction included measures levelled on non-populating Italians, such as a special 'bachelor tax,' while positive incentives were extended to encourage the creation of families, including preferrential housing status. Italy under fascism also saw a wide expansion of state-sponsored social and medical programs to ensure the health of mothers and children.
The Battle for Births
The Fascist Regime introduced a variety of policies aimed at increasing the national birth rate. This demographic campaign took on a nationalistic and militaristic vocabulary, and was deemed the “Battle for Births.” The state implemented new penalties for abortion and controlled the sale of contraceptives and the distribution of birth control information (Horn 585). Additionally, after 1930, abortion and certain forms of contraception were considered "crimes against the health and integrity of the stock” (Horn quoting Ministero della Giustizia 1930). In 1926, bachelors were subjected to a special progressive tax and were identified as "deserters of paternity,” according to the regime’s militaristic language. Other “negative” approaches to the fascist demographic campaign included laws limiting migration abroad and restrictions on movement into the city from the country, which the regime promoted as a healthy locale ideal for family life. The regime pursued but eventually abandoned a plan to tax infertile marriages. “Positive” policies included preferential treatment for large families seeking homes, cash prizes for marriages and births, laws which allowed earlier marriages, and the establishment of new medical and social programs which focused on maternal and newborn health and care (Horn 584-585).
VIDEO, RIGHT: Large families were celebrated by the fascist regime. In this Luce newsreel from 1936, government officials visit 7 large families in Trastevere with a collective total of 53 children. All smile while giving the fascist salute under a poster of Il Duce himself.
Direct Ties Between Human 'Producers' and the Fascist State
Methods to tie the creation of large families to the success of the fascist state took the form of the state’s direct acknowledgement of especially productive marriages. State-sponsored associations for large families awarded gold medals to couples for success in their role as ‘producers’ of children. State recognition ceremonies for these large families could border on pageantry, such as the December 1940 “Sagra della Nuzialita” (rite of marriage) where representatives of families from all over Italy were reviewed by Mussolini. Eighty couples, parents of 1,544 children in all, marched in the ceremony (de Grand 964).
Opera Nazionale Maternita e Infanzia
The Opera Nazionale Maternita e Infanzia (National Organization of Maternity and Infancy) was created in 1925 to supervise the regime’s various child welfare efforts. ONMI tackled issues ranging from the social to the medical, and took on both the health of mothers and the health of children in its aims. OMNI health initiatives aimed at mothers and mothers-to-be outlined proper habits and nutrition during the months of pregnancy, and provided neonatal and obstetric care. OMNI's programs focusing on children included childcare and children's healthcare.
PHOTO, RIGHT: Though the building has long since been converted for other purposes, you can find a carved relief depicting idealized mothers and children above the entrance to the old ONMI headquarters in Rome. Photo by Avery Enderle Wagner, 2014.
Healthy Babies Make for Healthy Fascists
Hygiene and sanitation were consistent areas of emphasis for the regime and were seen as key to ensuring a healthy population for Italy's fascist future. Thus, new state involvement in the quality and health of children and families came to prominence. 1925 saw the creation of the Opera Nazionale della Maternita e dell'Infanzia, or the National Organization of Maternity and Infancy (ONMI), a state assistance agency whose aim was to aid mothers and children through scientifically and medically 'correct' child-rearing practices.
VIDEO, LEFT: From the LUCE Archives, this 1935 educational film was created by the Opera Nazionale Maternita e Infanzia to promote health and hygiene practices among mothers-to-be. In addition to educational material surrounding pregnancy and child-rearing, the film also acts to dessiminate information on the ONMI benefits and services available to women and families under the fascist regime. Also notable is the manner in which the film utilizes a rural setting to showcase the best practices for healthy family-raising: the fascist campaign for population increase and ruralization went hand-in-hand.
In an ONMI Preschool – Mother's Day Celebration
("In un nido di infanzia dell'Opera Nazionale Maternita e Infanzia – celebrazione della giornata della Madre")
VIDEO: This film from ONMI shows both the daily activities of an ONMI preschool and the 1940 state Mother's Day Celebration. The film begins as mothers drop their children off in the morning at the ONMI preschool, where ONMI assistants bathe the children, dress them, supervise the childrens' playtime, serve a meal to the older children and nurse the youngest, and prepare the children for their mothers' return. Later, mothers walk before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Il Vittoriano monument, where they give the fascist salute, before heading to Palazzo Venezia, holding portraits of Mussolini and Famiglia Fascista magazines. As Mussolini enters the room, he is greeted by fascists salutes and a warm welcome. Mussolini distributes awards for the womens' service to Italy as mothers.
Sources;
Alexander De Grand, “Women under Italian Fascism,” The Historical Journal 19, no. 4 (December 1, 1976): 947
David G. Horn, “Constructing the Sterile City: Pronatalism and Social Sciences in Interwar Italy,” American Ethnologist 18, no. 3 (August 1, 1991): 581–601.
Victoria De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women Italy, 1922-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).