ABSTRACT
Feminists in the 1930s belonged to a number of organizations, including different political parties, and there was no one central focus of thought and activity. Neither was there any one single Fascist view of women. The Fascist view as understood by the women focused on the returning of women to the home, the controlling of the populace by propaganda which highlights the position of a leader, and the glorification of militarism. The Fascist construction of women was most energetically resisted by feminists in the first half of the decade. For middle-class feminists equality and independence involved a rejection of women’s domestic role, a role emphasized and sanctified by Fascists. This chapter explores that feminist discourses challenging Fascism were constructed in the 1930s, but that they were robbed of their full impact by the circumstances in which they arose.
