Boys were taught in the Balillia that fighting was a natural extension of the normal male lifestyle, girls were taught that giving birth and growing up to be good mothers was natural whilst for the boys, fighting was natural. As statistics show that just under half of boys did not attend the Balillia shows that the regime was not completely successful in indoctrinating ‘ obedience, obedience and obedience’.
Women’s role in fascist Italy was to give birth and have lots of children. Mussolini wanted a larger population for reasons of national power. He wanted more soldiers to fight his wars and more Italians to expand his empire and for this reason women’s main role in fascist Italy was to produce children.
Mussolini introduced the ‘Battle of the Births’ in 1927. Women were given incentives, such as; marriage loans in which repayments were cancelled if the mother bore four children, tax relief was given e.g. no income tax if the mother bore 10 children, award ceremonies for mothers and medals. Mussolini made sure that women were discouraged from working by limiting the number of people that could be in a certain job. He wanted women to concentrate on having children for Italy. This failed, as this did not encourage women to have more children but to join universities. Statistics show that by 1938, 15% of universities students were female compared with 6% in 1914. Mussolini wanted Italy to have a population of 60 million by 1950. In 1920 it stayed at 37 million and his target of 50 million was out of his reach, the Battle of the births soon failed. Although the population of Italy grew as people were living longer, between 1927 and 1934 the birth rate actually declined. Which shows how many women ignored the fascist regimes values.
Mussolini did not so much create a nation of people whom believed and conformed to fascist roles and beliefs, but a deprived nation whom liked the idea of all the luxuries that were introduced. Mussolini set up the Italian workers’ organisaton in which organized trips and outings for people whom could not normally afford to do this things in their normal lifestyle. So this became very popular amongst the working class and went on after the regime had collapsed. This shows very clearly that Mussolini did not create a nation of fascists as it was not the fascists ideas that were appealing to people but the luxuries that came with it.
Although one of Mussolini’s substantial achievements was the establishment of a state run organization. There were rules, decrees made by Mussolini that were part of the law, and there was little opposition to fascist Italy which does show that little stood up and opposed the regime but merely went along with it. But it does not show that people really believed in the fascist regime Mussolini stood for.
This could be because of the terror inflicted by the OVRA and the secret police; All Italians were expected to obey Mussolini and his Fascist Party. Authority was enforced by the use of the Black shirts – the nickname for the Fasci di Combattimenti. Those men in this unit were usually ex-soldiers and it was their job to bring into line those who opposed Mussolini. It was the Black shirts that murdered the socialist Matteotti. This caused people to fear them, people were too afraid too speak up against the fascists.
If people were to oppose the fascist state they could risk losing their jobs or their lives, teachers had to swear an oath of loyalty to Mussolini, and many civil servants joined the fascist party just to keep the job not because they were strong supporters of the regime. The Koon that was set up proved to be a failure; most Italian teachers did not become strong supporters of the regime. Many teachers were ‘disullisioned and discouraged’, in the new fascist climate they realized that ‘ the regime had given them nothing to believe in, none to obey and nothing for which to fight’.
To conclude although Mussolini was successful in creating a dictatorship, he did not make Italy’s nation fascist overall. So his attempt failed. Although Mussolini had a lack of opposition to the regime, this was not because there was no opposition, but because people merely tolerated the regime rather than actually being true followers of fascist values. Although the youth were indoctrinated at school from a young age, the fascist values that were enforced at school were not continually enforced later on in lives, so many drifted from the regime and were not strong supporters. There was not enough done to impose these values upon children and they left it too late in order for it to have a proper impact. Many organistaions set up were purely popular because of the activities that were set up within these organizations, i.e. the OND, which provided luxuries for the working class. Many people were afraid through terror and propaganda of what might happen to them if they did not obey the fascist regime and so they joined the fascist party merely because of the consequences of what might happen to them.
