ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

Women's suffrage in southern Europe does not paint a uniform picture in its historical development. Influencing factors included the position of the Catholic Church and the orientation of the women’s movement. In Albania, women's suffrage was introduced as early as 1920. In other southern European countries, women were only allowed to vote during the Second World War, for example in Croatia, and in some countries only after that, for example in Italy. In San Marino, active women's suffrage was only introduced in 1958. The women also had to wait there until the elections of 1964 until they were allowed to vote for the first time and received the passive suffrage only in 1973. A special case is Spain, where in May 1931 women were first granted the passive but not the active right to vote for the national parliament. It was only after a constitutional reform in December 1931 that women were finally able to participate actively in the parliamentary elections for the first time in 1933. Under the Franco regime, universal suffrage was then suppressed, and it was only with the restoration of democracy in the mid-1970s that women gained full voting rights.

Investigation of possible factors influencing the political representation of women

Position of the Catholic Church
Pope Pius X proclaimed that women made a mistake in seeking the same political rights as men. This statement reflected the conservative position within Catholic churches: The family is the center of a woman’s life and any political activity would remove her from her service to her husband and children. Nevertheless, the Pope characterized this statement as a personal opinion that did not have the binding effect of a doctrinal opinion for the faithful.

But the Pope’s opinion was not without contradiction. So the feminists Mary Kendall and Gabrielle Jeffrey called for a Catholic meeting on the 25th. May 1911 at Kensington City Hall. They founded the first Catholic organization in the world to introduce women’s suffrage, the Catholic Women’s Suffrage Society. In the banner, the company led Johanna of Orleans. The women wrote to the Archbishop of Westminster, who did not want to take a clear position on women's suffrage, and they took on the 17th. June 1911 participated in the coronation procession. Although the society defined itself as nonviolent, it sent members as observers to trials against suffragettes.

As advantages of women's suffrage, several arguments were cited by the Catholic side, but they did not convince the Church: an enrichment of the perspectives of those who voted on the laws on social issues, marriage and the family; an increase in standards of sexual abstinence; better protection for minors; greater attention to the issues of health and the emotional and mental needs of the child.

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