Quote rosa e parità tra i sessi: la storia di un lungo cammino

Art. 48 of the Italian Constitution grants right to vote to men and women without any difference, according to art. 3.1, which enshrines the principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination based on “sex, race, language, religion, political opinion, personal and social conditions”. The right to be elected is established by art. 56.3 Cost. for the Camera dei Deputati and by art. 58.1 Cost. for the Senato della Repubblica, without any reference to the sex of the candidates. In Italy, the right to vote was established early, on occasion of the vote for the institutional referendum of the 2nd June 1946; differently, the right to be elected has been the result of a long and hard-fought struggle and the recognition of the right to be elected for Italian women needed the proactive contribution of the State, according to the second part of art. 3 Cost.: “It is the duty of the Republic to remove the economic and social obstacles which by limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organization of the country”. Italian women had to fight a lot to seat in Parliament. Only after the 2003 constitutional reform of art. 51 Cost., which establishes that “citizens of either sex are eligible for public offices and for elective positions on equal terms”, and “the Republic shall adopt specific measures to promote equal opportunities between women and men”, in conjunction with case law of the Italian Constitutional Court (especially judgments n. 49/2003 and n. 4/2010), women’s right to be elected was recognized in the Italian system. Nowadays the electoral law concerning the Camera dei Deputati (n. 52/2015) establishes that the electoral register shall be composed by candidates of either sex in alternative order. Is it a happy end? We don’t know actually…