Alice Schiavoni Bosio (12 March 1871 - 24 January 1931) was an Italian suffragette. She served as the director of the journal ''Attività Femminile Sociale'' from its founding in 1913 through 1916. Affiliated with the

Consiglio Nazionale delle Donne Italiane The Consiglio Nazionale delle Donne Italiane (CNDI) or National Council of Italian Women is an Italian federation of women's associations, including those admitting both men and women, bent on improving conditions for women. Founded in 1903 as the ...

(National Council of Italian Women, CNDI), a member of the

International Council of Women The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's rights organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington, D.C., wit ...

, Schiavoni was one of the participants in both the

Women at the Hague Women at the Hague was an International Congress of Women conference held at The Hague, Netherlands in April 1915. It had over 1,100 delegates and it established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) with Jane Addams as pr ...

Conference of 1915 and the

Inter-Allied Women's Conference The Inter-Allied Women's Conference (also known as the Suffragist Conference of the Allied Countries and the United States) opened in Paris on 10 February 1919. It was convened parallel to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Paris Peace Conferenc ...

of 1919.

Biography

Alice Bosio was born on 12 March 1871 in Florence. She married a doctor, Schiavoni, and moved to Rome, becoming involved in women's issues. Joining the

(National Council of Italian Women), Schiavoni was one of the upper-class women who worked for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, along with Sofia Bisi-Albini, Maria Grassi Koenen, Jacinta Martini Marescotti,

Maria Montessori Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( , ; August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori e ...

, Virginia Nathan, Maria Pasolini Ponti, Lavinia Taverna, and Angelica Devito Tommasi. In 1913, when the CNDI established a journal, ''Attività Femminile Sociale'' (Women's Social Activity) as its journal to disseminate information on the various groups working throughout Italy on women's issues, Schiavoni acted as its director for the first three years of operation. She not only managed ''Attività Femminile Sociale'' for the CNDI, but during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, served as manager of the '' Associazione per la donna'', which operated a legal service for refugees. She maintained staunchly that the women's movement must remain

apolitical Apoliticism is apathy or antipathy towards all political affiliations. A person may be described as apolitical if they are uninterested or uninvolved in politics. Being apolitical can also refer to situations in which people take an unbiased po ...

to benefit all women. As one of the section leaders of the CNDI, Schiavoni was one of the Italian women who attended and spoke at the 1915 International Congress of Women at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. Schiavoni was one of the delegates to the

, which convened in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

on 10 February 1919, as a parallel congress to the Paris Peace Conference. The conference marked the first time women had been allowed to officially participate in an international treaty organization, and Schiavoni was with the delegation who made the historic presentation to the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

on 10 April. In 1921, she undertook a study with other women of prostitution. Their aim, as announced in an article written by Schiavoni in ''Giornale della Donna'' (The Woman's Journal) was to determine if regulating prostitution unjustly targeted women involved in the sex trade, without providing adequate health regulations or controls to vice, as legalization of the trade did not equally focus on clients. Schiavoni remained active in the CNDI until her death on 24 January 1931 in Rome. She was buried in a joint tomb with Fannie Louise Bosio Bolens at the Protestant Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schiavoni Bosio, Alice 1871 births 1931 deaths People from Florence Italian suffragists Italian women's rights activists 19th-century Italian women 20th-century Italian women