Mattarella: 'Women should no longer be asked to be male role models'

"How many resources, how many talents we have lost over the past times! Institutions have offered and continue to offer an example. But the issue is not about single figures of excellence. The challenge concerns millions of women, workers, professionals, mothers of families. It will only be concluded when women are no longer asked to assume male role models in the various spheres of society in order to have their roles, abilities and qualities recognised. Until this happens, there will continue to be a loss of values and opportunities for the whole of Italian society'. So said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, speaking at the Quirinale at the 'International Women's Day' celebrations.

The vote for women in 1946 was 'an authentic revolution, which put an end to a centuries-old history of discrimination and marginalisation and marked the beginning of a new season, where responsibilities, opportunities, and rights applied to women and men, finally on an equal footing. Women had always borne witness to their leading role and had reaffirmed it by supporting Italian society and the economy during the painful years of the two world wars, also taking an active part in the Liberation, as partisan relay girls, as activists, as fighters,' said the President of the Republic.

"After centuries in which women were considered in a subordinate position and their role in society was confined to the family and domestic sphere, the vote for women represented the milestone for which so many had worked," Mattarella explained. "A turning point carved, shortly thereafter, in our Constitution, in Article 3. The equality, dignity and freedom of women not as a concession from above, but as a fundamental right of every person. It was not yet,' the president emphasised, 'the achievement of actual equality. But the Constitution, by affirming it, laid the foundations of the Republic's duty to realise and develop it, paving the way for progressive legislative achievements, realised above all thanks to the commitment of women in Parliament and in society'.

"In the course of republican history, the increasing presence of women in different professional spheres has marked a profound transformation of the Italia state. For a long time, it was taken for granted that top positions were held by men. Women were recognised as having a role confined to executive, administrative and support levels. Italian women have progressively conquered, often ranking first in competitions, increasingly important positions in the judiciary, diplomacy, the prefectorial career, universities, the medical and scientific field, and local administrations: there are more than eight times as many women at the helm of municipalities as there were in the 1980s," the Head of State stressed. "A good twenty-five years passed - it is paradoxical - between the first woman undersecretary of State - Angela Cingolani Guidi in 1951 - and the first woman minister, Tina Anselmi, in 1976. Three years later the first woman president of the Chamber of Deputies, Nilde Jotti. We then had to wait for forty years, I repeat forty years, to have, within the space of a few years, President Alberti Casellati in the Senate, President Cartabia at the Constitutional Court, President Cassano at the Court of Cassation and the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni'.

"These eighty years tell us not only a story of emancipation, but a story of the growth of our Republic and the quality of democracy. From the contribution of women's competence and sense of responsibility, the Republic has drawn strength. The presence of women in the professions or in the institutions is not a question of quotas: it is the sign of a Republic that recognises and values all the best energies at its disposal. The Republic has given a lot to women. Women have given a lot to the Republic and the balance is still not up to par,' Mattarella noted again.