The Weight of Metaphysics. The Social Doctrine of the Church and Female Citizenship in Italy between the 19th and 20th Centuries

Abstract

This essay debates on the thesis that, for the women's citizenship, the Church's social doctrine saw, in the first half of the 20th century, such transformations to lead to a progressive subsumption of women's claims within a Catholic conception of public life. Rather, it is possible to show how the transformations that have taken place have been ambiguous in character, with the basic ontological notion of the two sexes remaining substantially unchanged, to the point of envisaging, for female citizens called to vote, a clear distinction between the active and passive electorate.

Keywords

• women’s citizenship
• catholic social doctrine
• ontological theory
• active and passive electorate