Tomorrow, March 8, is International Working Women’s Day, and to mark
this important event we are publishing this article. It was first printed in
issue Number 5 of ‘In difesa del marxismo’, the theoretical magazine of the
Italian Marxist journal FalceMartello. Although originally written for an
Italian audience we believe it is of interest to labour movement activists and
youth around the world.

Following on from our publication of Part One of this article to commemorate
March 8, International Working Women’s Day, we are publishing Part Two, which
starts with the role of women in the Italian resistance movement and then goes
on to analyse the Italian feminist movement from the Second World War up until
today.

The Irish population in a referendum has just rejected a government
move to further restrict women’s limited access to abortions. This is a
blow for the reactionaries but the right to abortion is still out of
reach for most Irish women, being available only to those who can
afford to travel to Britain.