Feminism, the state, and the centrality of reproduction

Abortion struggles in 1970s Italy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11934412
AutoresMaud Anne Bracke (0000-0002-9394-5673, University of Glasgow, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen42
Número4
Páginas524-546
Fecha de publicación2017-09-28
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0307-1022 • E-ISSN: 1470-1200
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03071022.2017.1368234
OpenAlexW2734456293
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas1

This article analyses an episode of intense socio-political conflict over the question of abortion in 1970s Italy. Considering the shifting positions of feminist groups and other pro-legalization actors on the one hand, and institutions, political parties and the Church on the other, it offers a new analysis of social mobilization, leading to parliamentary debate and legal change. It presents an original approach to an understanding of feminist challenges to patriarchal cultures and institutions, and of the latter’s immediate responses. Focusing on Italy but referring to developments in other industrialized countries, the article inscribes the history of the battle for reproductive rights in 1970s Italy within a framework centred on the Foucauldian notion of biopolitical power. It is argued that the legal settling of the issue came to be seen by state actors as central to the wider socio-political stabilization of the country. For feminists, the question of abortion was less straightforward than is often assumed. Italian feminist debate, while visibly impacting on wider society, was marked by dilemmas around the private and the public, the relationship to the state, and concerns around centring the feminist agenda on reproduction

Abortion · Feminism · Feminist theory · Legalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Power (physics · Private sphere · Public sphere · Reproduction · Reproductive rights · Sociology · State (computer science · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law