Women and Men Teachers in Italy from the Fall of the Old Regime to the Rise of Fascism. Birth and development of a profession.

The article examines the slow process of professionalization of elementary school teachers, from the fragmented educational reality of the old regime to the emergence of a teaching body with a specific preparation and a collective identity. The Italian Government played a significant role in this process by preparing teachers up to the task of fighting illiteracy and promoting people’s adherence to the new State fundamental values. Teaching, however, remained poorly paid and quite precarious and those aspects increased feminine recruitment: the job was considered a respectable and typically womanly occupation, even though the arrival of single girls in small provincial towns sometimes resulted into persecutions that found an echo in press and literature. The improvement of teachers’ cultural level fostered the development of a class consciousness. In the new century, combative associations developed; they obtained important results, but were undermined by deep internal divisions, which opposed men and women, urban and rural, catholic and secular teachers. Teachers were accused of defending corporative interests and neglecting the school system needs, and then called to order by the Gentile’s education reform, one of the first acts of Fascist rule.