Penelope’s Web: Female Military Service in Italy — Debates and Draft Proposals, 1945–92

Abstract

The absence of female personnel in the Italian Army constitutes one of its conspicuous anomalies in comparison with Western military models. But this anomaly is only the consequence of another anomaly, namely the relatively low percentage of career or voluntary personnel by comparison with conscripts. It should be recalled that in Western armed forces female recruitment is exclusively voluntary in nature (even for the proportion enlisted only for the national service period), and conscription of women is the practice only in countries in exceptional situations.

For a complete bibliography on secondary and primary juridical sources, sec V. Ilari, Storia del servizio militare in Italia, v, 2 (Rome: Riv. Militare, 1992), pp. 389–423 (La difesa della patria, 1945–1991) pp. 427–30 (La questione del servizio militare femminile) .