Abstract
This article deconstructs some of the allegedly positive features of the Fordist era by analyzing postwar Italy from a gender perspective. In the Italian case, the Fordist factory became a paradigmatic image of Italian modernity in the years of the economic miracle, disregarding the diversity of the industrial system and the diversity of labor relations and working conditions, supposedly characterized by the prevalence of stable, full-time, permanent employment. However, job stability was never fully achieved for women in the so-called golden age of the twentieth century. This article analyzes the social and working conditions of women in postwar Italy as a way of addressing the concept and reality of Fordism. It also examines the agency of women trade unionists and parliamentarians, and the role of women’s associations in unraveling the gender-blind policy debates on full employment. Finally, the article focuses on the role that women workers, along with women’s associations and trade unions, played in gendering social services by passing key legislation between the 1960s and 1970s.
