Letter to the Ministries and to the Government: “Women for a new Renaissance”

Rome (NEV),  May 23, 2020 – The Federation of Protestant Women in Italy (FDEI) sent a letter on May 19, to the attention of the Minister for equal opportunities and the family, Elena Bonetti, and for information to the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Nunzia Catalfo, to the Health Minister  Roberto Speranza and to the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte.
The letter, signed by the FDEI President, pastor Gabriela Lio (on behalf of the national women’s groups and unions of the Waldensian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Salvation Army, Adventist, and the Reformed church of Ticino denominations, that are part of it), contains concrete proposals for a social, economical and cultural revival starting from women, seen as the pivot in all areas of life.
“As protestant women we have repeatedly expressed, even with a national petition, the need of supporting on a larger scale the shelters for abused women and their children, but also to facilitate the birth of new structures so that they may be present throughout all the national territory”, writes the FDEI.
“We believe it is necessary to think of smart working for men and women when there are minors at home or when there is a need for care for disabled family members. The heavier burden of care cannot only weigh on women’s shoulders. They generally pay the highest price as it has particularly been seen even in this pandemic period. Working times and the reorganization of social life need to be remodeled,  watching and enforcing equal pay and  rights of all people, including migrants”.
The request is that of a new paradigm: “If we really want to make women’s lives less burdensome, it is essential to strengthen essential services such as health, personal freedom, public safety, transport efficiency, school, cultural services”.
To do this we need far-sighted and urgent choices. “Never before, in a phase of reconstruction of the society, is there a need for the female presence in institutions to plan a more balanced future, which take into account the real life of people and families, which contribute to eradicate the negative stereotypes that so much condition daily action, developing those dynamics capable of raising children in respect of physical, cultural and social differences”.
“There is also the need for female input to address the issue of sustainable development – continues the letter -, without sacrificing any longer the environment to the logic of profit which favors enormous imbalances, pollution and deadly diseases. At a time of important public choices, our main hope is that we will try to devise a future richer in rights, with a sensible use of resources towards real emancipation”.
For years, FDEI has been committed to enhancing and listening to women,  contrasting violence and  helping to develop a fairer and more supportive society.  At the end of the letter, protestant women offer their availability to work together on these objectives with these words: “We congratulate the team of experts you chose with this specific objective, ‘Women for a new Renaissance’, and we ask ourselves if it is not possible to enlarge the consultation also with other entities that already work widely on the national territory to facilitate the life of women and defend their rights”.
In these days, the FDEI has also sent two other letters, to the protestant women and to the executives of the churches belonging to the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI), in which these issues are reaffirmed, inviting everyone to action with concrete operational proposals.  The discussion is open and we will carry it on with FDEI in the coming weeks.