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Women Behind the Lines: The Friuli Region as a Case Study of Total Mobilization, 1915–1917

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Gender and the First World War

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Abstract

During the First World War, the northeastern border region of Italy known as Friuli became a rear area of the Italian front.1 In this period people experienced ‘total war’ not only due to an extensive use of civilian workers in the context of the logistic efforts of the Italian Army, but also through the militarization of society, through air strikes, internments, and new forms of military control. After the defeat of Caporetto in October 1917,2 part of the population managed to flee towards other Italian regions, while the others had to bear the harsh Austro-German occupation until the end of the war.3

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Notes

  1. On 25 October 1917, the Austro-German army under General von Below achieved a significant breakthrough by a gas attack against the weak Italian lines in the Isonzo valley near the little village of Caporetto. German and Austrian forces penetrated into Friuli and conquered Udine. They captured 300,000 soldiers, and occupied Friuli and part of the Veneto region within a week. In order to avoid a wide encirclement of the armies placed along the main line of the Carso front, General Cadorna ordered a retreat to the right bank of the River Piave. The Caporetto defeat became somewhat of a’ stain’ on the Italian First World War campaign. During the retreat, Cadorna accused his soldiers of cowardice and interpreted the defeat as a soldiers’ strike. Although the events of Caporetto were actually due to a military strategic surprise, the defeat became a symbol in public discourse of the 1917 Italian crisis both at the front line and at the home front, and contributed to the repression of and suspicion against ‘internal enemies’. Among the broad range of publications, see N. Labanca, G. Procacci and L. Tomassini (1997) Caporetto: Esercito, stato, società (Florence: Giunti)

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  2. N. Labanca (1997) Caporetto: Storia di una disfatta (Florence: Giunti).

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  3. Italian historiography has analysed the situation of women especially in industrial towns (Turin, Milan, Genoa), while research on women from rural districts has been sparse. Since the 1980s, women’s industrial work has been selected as a paradigm to analyse women’s changing roles, and this approach has affected the understanding of women’s wartime experience as a whole. In the late 1990s, historians started to investigate the First World War as a ‘total war’ and tried to evaluate the impact of war on society behind the front line. See M. Ermacora (2007) ‘Le donne italiane nella Grande Guerra: Un bilancio storiografico (1990–2005)’, in P. Antolini, G. Barth-Scalmani, M. Ermacora, N. Fontana, D. Leoni, P. Malni and A. Pisetti (eds) Donne in guerra, 1915–1918: La Grande Guerra attraverso l’analisi e le testimonianze di una terra di confine (Rovereto: Centro studi Judicaria, Museo storico italiano della guerra), pp. 11–30.

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  5. See M. Ermacora (2001) Un anno difficile: Buja tra pace e guerra (agosto 1914-maggio 1915) (Udine: El Tomàt)

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  6. E. Ellero (2007) Friuli 1914–1917: Neutralità guerra, sfollamenti coatti, internamenti (Pasian di Prato: Ifsml), pp. 19–61.

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  10. See ‘Il lavôr das feminis’ [Women’s work], L’Amico del Contadino, 3 September 1916, p. 2; A. Molinari (2008) Donne e ruoli femminili nell’Italia della Grande Guerra (Milan: Selene Edizioni).

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  18. For this ‘mass mothering’, see C. Fragiacomo (1990) ‘Paularo. Un paese in guerra’, in L. Fabi (ed.) La gente e la guerra, vol. 1 (Udine: Il Campo), pp. 157–88.

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  25. E. Ellero (2001) Storia di un esodo: I friulani dopo la rotta di Caporetto 1917–1919 (Pasian di Prato: Ifsml).

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Authors
  1. Matteo Ermacora
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vienna, Austria

    Christa Hämmerle (Associate Professor of Modern and Women’s and Gender History) (Associate Professor of Modern and Women’s and Gender History)

  2. University of Bozen/Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy

    Oswald Überegger (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

  3. Department of History, University of Vienna, Austria

    Birgitta Bader Zaar (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

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© 2014 Matteo Ermacora

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Ermacora, M. (2014). Women Behind the Lines: The Friuli Region as a Case Study of Total Mobilization, 1915–1917. In: Hämmerle, C., Überegger, O., Zaar, B.B. (eds) Gender and the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137302205_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137302205_2

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45379-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-30220-5

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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