For most of Italy’s history, women were not seen as decision-makers. They were expected to stay home, raise children, and had no role in politics. Under Mussolini’s fascist regime (1922–1943), traditional gender roles were not just encouraged—they were imposed. Women were seen primarily as mothers and caretakers, and their political involvement was not only discouraged but actively prevented. That began to change after World War II, when in 1945 Italian women were finally granted the right to vote.
When they entered polling stations for the first time, they did so with both pride and fear. Their newfound right felt fragile, as though any small mistake might be used to prove that women were unfit for politics. Even the small mark of a fingerprint, a smudge, a trace of lipstick could lead officials to judge the vote “invalid” and ignore it.
They carried handkerchiefs to wipe their hands and lips, avoided makeup, or even skipped wearing lipstick altogether. This act symbolized the struggle women faced to be taken seriously in the political arena, forcing them to erase parts of their identity to avoid having their hard-won right to vote nullified.
That simple act of wiping off lipstick became a powerful symbol. It reflected the larger struggle women faced as they stepped into a male-dominated world: the need to hide parts of themselves to be accepted, to appear neutral and respectable in spaces that had never before made room for them.
Lipstick, once a symbol of vanity, became instead a mark of dignity, resolve, and the tension between empowerment and vulnerability. This gesture showed how deeply they internalized the expectation to be “model citizens,” while simultaneously using that discipline to protect their hard-won rights. In their quiet composure, these women demonstrated that true strength can exist in subtlety.
In removing their lipstick, they revealed not fragility, but the fierce involvement of a new beginning.
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