It would be easier to point out a thousand reasons why it is debasing to be born a woman than to try to make sense of 8 March in this 2024. In 2024 as in previous years, moreover: perhaps making an exception, for example, for 1978, the year of the abortion law, a right it would make sense to celebrate.
The right-wing government, which took office in October 2023, has put a clear brake on the pursuit of gender equality that is still a long way off. It is true: Giorgia Meloni won the elections, the first woman to hold the position of Prime Minister in Italy. A victory to which, however, is not matched by any action that gives hope for a change in the condition of women. On the contrary.
The dismantling of the citizenship income, the declared opposition to the minimum wage, chart a course that actually accentuates the gap between rich and poor. And there is an immediate connection, if not, we would like to emphasise, with the unequal cultural, social and professional conditions with which every woman has to contend.
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It is impossible to separate physical violence, which is repugnant and explicit, from economic violence, which passes more quietly but is equally penalising. According to Ipsos data (2023), at least 49% of women report having suffered economic violence at least once in their lives.
But what is meant by economic violence?
In 2019, less than 40% of women in Italy had their own bank account and the percentage grew to 100% for those with a low level of education. The unequal status and economic dependence on one's partner or husband imply the obvious difficulty in rebuilding oneself, in starting again, after having suffered physical violence. And to detach oneself from the man despite the violence suffered. And again the primacy of dismissals held by women, then compulsory part-time work. In this regard, the Mia Economia national online helpdesk has been opened, dedicated to victims of economic violence, to help women in debt or in difficulty at work due to a violent relationship.
Jumping from pole to pole, because there would be too many issues to address in view of the reprehensible day of “festivities”, do we, as women, intend to have children?
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Who knows, maybe yes, maybe no. It would be enough to be free to choose and in the event of getting pregnant not to have to deal with some 70 per cent objector doctors. It would be enough.
Last year the USB, Unione Sindacale di Base, responded to the appeal launched by “Not One Less” and proclaimed a strike against all gender-based violence, from physical and economic to institutional violence. There is nothing left for us to do, to keep the flame of hope burning and cultivate a revolutionary impulse that we absolutely need, but to continue taking to the streets. The lesson comes from a recent story in Repubblica by Concita de Gregorio: “[…] when you want to do something, just do it.”
So let us shout it loudly: “long live women”, if only for the courage to be one.
Here to learn more about the 2024 parade.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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