Cittadinanza femminile e modernizzazione: Tullia Romagnoli Carettoni e la coscienza politica del progresso

Starting from a renewed scholarly interest in her figure, the essay aims to draw attention on the political engagement of Italian Republic senator Tullia Romagnoli Carettoni. The Senator’s battle for a change in the status of women, that was about a rethinking of social roles, but also a renewal of the national custom, becomes more incisive between the second half of the 1950s and the late 1970s, in the phase of demo- cratic consolidation of the Country, but also of its modernization, which coincided with a sharp economic growth and a radical social transformation. The paper analyzes some issues, still very present, that she addressed within the institutions - but also in the magazines Mondoperaio and L’Astrolabio -, like the dialectics between female pro- ductive work and caring, with particular attention to one of the sub- jects to which she dedicated herself, during her intense political activi- ty, that is the total fulfilment of women’s citizenship.