On the Side of Rights
“Politics is never a job, it’s a passion. I also tell young girls that it’s a fragile career. There are times when you’re riding high, on the crest of a wave, then you fall down and you have to pick yourself up again.” This is how Emma Bonino sums up the commitment that has made her a prominent figure in Italian politics for almost 50 years. A life serving in Parliament and in institutions that she would never have imagined as a little girl growing up on the family farm in Bra, Piedmont.
Job or no job, Bonino succeeded in forging a political path – while fighting for civil rights and embracing civil disobedience – that led her to become one of the most famous faces of liberal radicalism. She was Vice-President of the Senate, Minister of International Trade in the Prodi government from 2006 to 2008, and Foreign Minister in the Letta government. Today she leads +Europa, a liberal, pro-European party, as always, with the determination and “hardheadedness” that have become her trademark over the years.
“If you were a woman and wanted to go to university, you were already swimming against the tide. Women went to school to become teachers or bookkeepers. I chose Foreign Languages and Literature at Bocconi which was rather reckless: it was the only degree program that they didn’t have in Turin. Commuting between Milan and Bra was impossible, so I’d have to move.” Arriving in Milan “for a small-town girl” was a dream come true. “Everything was new, everything was a discovery. I had on-campus housing at Bocconi and, just think, we were separated, there were strict rules: men in one area and women in another. An incentive for breaking the rules,” she smiles.
But if she had to choose a degree program today, she says she would study science. “Knowing languages was certainly useful, but today it’s good to specialize in STEM. And there are role models: I think of Samantha Cristoforetti and, before her, Senator Elena Cattaneo.” Bonino describes her student years, from 1967 to 1972, as simple and happy. When we could afford it, we went to the Derby in the evening. That was where I fell in love with Gaber, Jannacci, Cochi and Renato,” she adds.
She fell in love with politics soon after. In her words: “My initial contact with politics was spontaneous; it came naturally when I met the Radicals in 1974.” She says, “I became a feminist when I studied and understood the condition of women in our society and when I met other women radicals.” They founded the Women’s Liberation Movement. Her personal history also led her to embrace a feminist mindset. She had an abortion when she was 27, and had to face a thousand problems, and risked having to pay for an illegal procedure. This is what she has to say: “It was certainly not a brilliant experience, but from this episode in my life came my obsession to combat clandestine abortions. I wanted to do everything I could to legalize abortion.” The rest is history: in 1975 she founded CISA (Centre for Information, Sterilization and Abortion) and risked being arrested for helping women. Then, on May 22, 1978, the law legalizing abortion was finally passed in Italy.
When asked, “Why are there so few women in politics?” Bonino answered bluntly: “Women are retreating. Either because of burnout in such a hostile environment, or because they never get any recognition, or because of family difficulties. Too many of them are waiting for co-optation, which time and time again, just doesn’t happen. Being ‘the secretary of’ or ‘the assistant of’ in a party, hoping to be rewarded, it doesn’t work.” The space, the inducement, lies between the lines; you need to seize it.
Bonino feels a real connection with today’s feminists: “The world has changed since my time, and when I think of my childhood on the farm, it seems like a different Italy. In terms of rights, we’ve achieved important goals, but now it’s a question of defending them. Never fool yourself into thinking that they will be there forever. They have to be safeguarded and defended.” Always.
