There are moments in politics that make history. The election of the first woman as President of the Italian Council of Ministers is one of them. But why does Giorgia Meloni want to be called Madame LE Prime Minister?
This content was published on November 17, 2022 – 16:00
November 17, 2022 – 4:00 pm
Opinion of Claudia Vaccarone
Claudia Vaccarone is an expert in diversity and gender equality and advises organizations on how to develop an inclusive culture and make gender equality and diversity strategic pillars.
“Madam Prime Minister” would have catapulted Italy to another level of consciousness on gender equality, more in line with that of other European countries. She would have served as a model and inspired millions of young women to dare a career in politics, to get involved. She would probably have sparked a livelier and deeper public debate than the current debate, which plays with the way the first woman to hold the highest administrative and political office clings to the androcentrism that characterizes our culture.
Instead, Giorgia Meloni therefore preferred to impose the masculine article on a title that is in itself epicene in Italian (president), anchoring her future of Italian feminine leadership a little more in the heavy androcentric and patriarchal tradition of the country. – perhaps out of fear of diminishing her role, of losing her legitimacy, of not being perceived as a “real” leader.
A rule that is anything but trivial
Why is the article “the” not an insignificant detail in 2022? The generic masculine is not an insignificant rule but has been created over time and maintains a social as well as semantic hierarchy. Language is a fundamental aspect of a society. It defines and shapes how we make sense of our experiences, and sets the parameters that guide our understanding of what is (and isn’t) possible. Not only in terms of representation but also in terms of values!
Research conducted by the World Bank in 2019 identified for the first time the grammatical structure regarding gender of more than 4,000 languages, representing 99% of the world’s population. 38% of the world’s population speaks a gendered language, such as Italian and the Romance languages. Gendered languages classify objects as masculine or feminine, but also recognize the masculine gender as unquestionably dominant.
We are specifically talking about a “universal” masculine gender, that is, a gender that, especially in Italian, represents everyone. Research has shown that gendered languages are associated with very low labor force participation rates for women and more regressive gender norms.
The difference between the president or the president therefore has enormous social and economic consequences. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) published on October 25 the new equality index for European countries. Out of a possible 100 points, Italy has an index of 63.8 and sits in 14th place, with no improvement since 2018 – not encouraging data. Sweden ranks first with an index of 83.9, the European average being 68. One figure in particular gives an idea of how far behind Italy is on equality issues: only 42% of women in Italy are working ( compared to 67% in Europe).
Intentionally feminizing the professions allows us to change mentalities, to give back to women all their dignity, their rights and their potential. Every word counts!
Language is never a monolith
Claudio Marazzini, President of the Accademia della Crusca, commented on President Meloni’s choice of a male title, saying the language is flexible and fluctuating, adding that you have to “get used to not being afraid of these linguistic oscillations” because “language is never monolithic”. But precisely for this reason, it is very important not to miss any opportunity to give importance to the representation of women in society. Deliberately feminizing the professions allows us to change mentalities, to give back to the feminine and to women all their dignity, their rights and their potential. Every word counts!
Indeed, the 2022 edition of Treccani’s Dictionary of the Italian Language does not, for the first time, present entries favoring the masculine gender, but chooses to lemmatize feminine adjectives and nouns as well. The announcement of September 22 represents a real revolution that formalizes the urgency of a change to include the feminine from the language. Thus, surgeon, medicine, soldier and president are welcome!
These debates are not new: thirty years have passed since feminist Alma Sabatini’s recommendations for a non-sexist use of the Italian language (1986), in which she denounced the use and social and political consequences of the generic masculine in media, official documents and textbooks.
In Italy, despite the example of female leaders who have asked for their title to be used in the feminine, such as Nilde Iotti, the first female president of the Chamber of Deputies, the former president of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini, the former mayor of Milan Letizia Moratti or the former mayor of Turin Chiara Appendino, the masculine is unfortunately always preferred – like the conductor Beatrice Venezi, who asked to be called conductor during the Sanremo competition in 2021.
However, examples abound
However, examples of female leadership consecrated by language are not lacking in Europe – the choice of Giorgia Meloni is particularly striking for its anachronism at a time when the highest European positions (Commission and Parliament) are occupied by two other women! Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission and Roberta Metsola President of the European Parliament.
The other women who occupy the post of first or vice-president of countries with gendered languages have all chosen to highlight the feminine: in France, in 2022, Élisabeth Borne was appointed Prime Minister by President Macron; Marine Le Pen is the president of the RN party; Yaël Braun-Pivet is the President of the National Assembly. In Latin America, we remember the “vice-presidenta” of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her counterpart from Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez. Even the King of Sweden announced in 2021 the appointment of the first female Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson, as Madam Prime Minister.
The Italian press has already tasted these contrasts during Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Brussels on 3 November: ‘President Giorgia Meloni met in Brussels the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council Charles Michel”, is it written on the official social channels of the government. At a time when international politics sees a growing number of women leaders occupying prestigious positions, Italian semantic traditionalism cringes.
We count on the Italian press and media to adopt a progressive and egalitarian position: their editorial lines can integrate and update new forms of inclusive language and guarantee journalism in tune with the times and feminist.
Usigrai, the journalists’ union of RAI, the national public broadcaster, published a note recalling that “RAI’s Usigrai contract contains the Venice Manifesto, which specifically refers to gender language, and that the gender policy of the company, recently approved by the board of directors of the RAI, indicates to use the feminine where it exists”.
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