ITALY: It’s a Lot Worse Than Sex Parties

By Sabina Zaccaro
ROME, Feb 14 (IPS) The demonstration by an estimated million women across
Italy Sunday points to
a continuing denial of fair opportunities for women at work.

The protest demonstrations, in 280 cities in Italy and 28 cities abroad,
were
called to demand action against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the
latest scandals. The turnout was some measure of the determination among
women to take the political and public debate in Italy to the real
problems of
women.

The protest followed weeks of intense debate over allegations that
Berlusconi
paid for sexual intercourse with a number of young women, including a 17-
year-old undocumented girl from Morocco. In Italy the age of consent is
14,
but prostitution below 18 is illegal.

According to prosecutors the young Moroccan girl is among a group of young
prostitutes Berlusconi habitually engaged. The PM is also accused of abuse
of
power, having personally ordered police to release the girl who had been
charged with theft.

Berlusconi denies the charges. A judge is expected to rule early this week
on a
possible trial in the coming months.

Women are now joining forces, not just to demand action against the PM,
but
to press for fundamental rights. "If a woman loses her job,
it’s a loss for every
one of us," Pina Nuzzo, president of the Italian Union of Women told
IPS.
"While politicians and the media are so obsessed by the news of the
day,
women workers in this country are left alone and thus more liable to be
blackmailed."

Nuzzo says female employment is seen as something minor. "The common
thought is that, towards the economic crisis, dismissing a woman is less
grave. For young women – those who don’t take the path of sexual
shortcuts
- it is still hard to get a job, because they are potential mothers (and
so less
attractive for employers). In this sense insecure employment is equal to
sterility."

The fact that television – and particularly the largest broadcasting
network
owned by Berlusconi – gives space to the worst female stereotypes, and
contributes to the representation of women as exchange goods, on TV as
well
as in politics, Nuzzo says.

The protesting women issued a petition that denounces "the indecent,
repetitive representation of women as a naked object of sexual exchange in
newspapers, on television and in advertising."

"The image of women in the media is at the worst ever," Silvia
Costa, member
of the European Parliament told IPS. "This attitude – which we
identify as
‘berlusconism’ – can even survive Berlusconi if we don’t
challenge the fact
that real problems of Italian women are simply left out of the public
debate.

"Do you know which are the issues under discussion at the moment at
the
European Parliament? Pensions, employment conditions for women, the
impact of the (economic) crisis over female work, policies for family
support,
etc.," Costa said. "None of these issues are on the political or
media agenda in
Italy. Here in Italy the real women, and their problems, are
censored."

According to women’s advocacy groups, the message from the latest
scandal
is that the simplest way for a woman to succeed in Italy is to sell her
body to
rich and powerful men.

One of the girls involved in the investigation, Sara Tommasi, spoke in a
recent interview of her studies in a renowned Italian university as
"a loss of
time". "A woman does not need a degree to have success; my body
is my
business," she said.

"In a country where one in two women does not work, and economic
disparity
with men is still so huge, the body is seen as a viable shortcut,"
Loredana
Lipperini, journalist and author tells IPS.

"This is not about good girls against bad girls," Lipperini
said. "I am not
censoring these behaviours; we have been struggling for sexual freedom.
But
freedom of choice is possible when you can chose among various
possibilities, when you have alternatives."

Berlusconi has often crossed the line between showbiz and politics by
selecting women from TV shows as candidates for the Italian and European
parliaments. Several members of the parliament now openly oppose this.

"People demonstrating are not moralists condemning the private
behaviour of
the PM, or that of women he frequents," said Giulia Buongiorno,
lawyer and
president of the lower house justice commission. "It is not about the
hardcore
parties; the real issue is that a party is not the right place to select
the leading
class."

Men joined women in the protests. Massimo Canino, 54, told IPS he was
protesting against "the idea that everything and everybody can be
bought. I
feel uneasy with this kind of culture, and I think more men should find
the
courage to say they disagree, without feeling less virile for that. We all
feel
humiliated by this attitude, women and men."

According to the national statistics institute (ISTAT), only 46 percent of
Italian
women are employed, compared with an average of 59 percent in the other
European countries.

The 2010 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index ranks Italy 74th out of
134 countries – followed only by Hungary, Malta and Cyprus in the EU. Less
than 10 percent of children have access to pre-school nurseries, and 27
percent of women quit work after having one child due to a lack of
nurseries,
family helpers and part-time jobs.