Anna Maria Mozzoni

Who was Anna Maria Mozzoni?

Anna Maria Mozzoni was an Italian feminist and a key figure in the Italian women's suffrage movement and is known as the founder of the women's movement in Italy. She was born in Rescaldina.

Early in her career Mozzoni embraced the utopian socialism of Charles Fourier. She later defended the poor and championed women's equality, arguing that women needed to enter the workplace to develop the female personality outside of the "monarcato patriarcale". In 1864 she wrote Woman and her social relationships on the occasion of the revision of the Italian Civil Code, a feminist critique of Italian family law. In 1877 Mozzoni presented a petition to parliament for woman suffrage. In 1878 Mozzoni represented Italy at the International Congress on Women's Rights in Paris. In 1879 she published her translation from English into Italian of The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill. In 1881 Mozzoni joined with other republicans, radicals, and socialists in a call for universal suffrage, including woman suffrage. In 1881 she also founded the League for the Promotion of the Interests of Women in Milan to promote a variety of causes of interest to women.