Fascism encouraged women to enter motherhood and procreate as soon as possible; the pressure to do so was building. Marriages and baptisms were seen as highly valuable ceremonies during Mussolini’s reign and in the Catholic Church. Instead of having intimate, quiet ceremonies, dozens of marriages were held in the church at the same time. They wanted to celebrate the entrance into adulthood for these couples. Marriage was not solely a personal ceremony, but a civic duty as well. Due to women’s ability to procreate, they were seen as highly valuable members of society. Mussolini also sought to dispense loans and compensations for those who married and produced children (cite). For women to control what they wanted, they sought to control the position they had in their society. It was the only logical and secure route to take. In De Grazia’s …show more content…
However, once the Fascist leader realized how much power the institution held in Italy, he mended their relationship. Bringing them into his side proved to be very beneficial. It added a significant amount of support and added credibility to his regime. To officially signify their new relationship, they signed the Lateran Treaty. In this, the Papal State recognized Rome as the capital of Italy while, in return, Italy understood the Papacy had dominion over Vatican City (cite). While the document holds many other central details, I will focus on mainly on the idea pertaining to marriage. In article 34, the state accepted Catholic marriages as valid and subjected these marriages to the canon law provisions (Phillips, ). The major focus affecting women from this article to criminalize divorce. With this option unavailable, there remained no life outside of marriage. The regime even went so far by “lower[ing] the age of marriage for women from fifteen to fourteen and for men from eighteen to sixteen; the age of consent for the former dropped from twenty-five to