ABSTRACT

Women played an important role in several major propaganda campaigns of fascism, such as the ruralization policy and the battle to increase the birth rate. Concern for the role of women was at the heart of the conservative and stabilizing nature of fascism and, in so far as it meant the subjugation of the private lives of citizens to the demands of the State, policy towards women reflected the totalitarian and imperialistic side of fascism as well. Suppression of peasant and proletarian women formed a particular aspect of the general repression of the entire working class. But the entry of middle and lower middle class women into the employment market represented a specialized problem for the fascists. Turning to female professional employment, one sees nothing like a complete victory for fascism. Women dominated in the traditional areas of teaching and nursing.