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The Resitance was primarily conducted by men, but women played an important role. We do not know to what extent Italian women were recruited for the military, but we believe it was less true than other major combatants. Women did serve as nurses. In Germany, NAZI policy was to reverse trends like women in universities. We are not sure if this was also true for Italian Fascism. There was no Resistance movement in Italy until Italy quit the War and Germany occupied the country (September 1943). Italian women joined the anti-Fascist/NAZI Resistance. A few women served in the Fascist army of Mussolini's rump state that formed in northern Italy. An estimated 35,000 women and 170,000 men joined the Resistance. Communists were important part of the Resistance. The women in the Resistance commonly served served as auxiliaries performing cooking and laundry duties. Others serves as guides, messengers, and couriers.A small number participated in attack groups of five or six fighters, commonly engaged in sabotage. The Resistance primarily focused on infrastructure rather than attacking German personnel. This was because the Germans would react savagely when their men were killed. There were a few all-female units. They were usually involved in civilian and political action. The Germans aggressively targetwd Resistance groups. Some 5,000 women were arrested, 3,000 were transported to Germany. There were an estimated 650 women who died in combat or were executed by the Germans. Non-military auxiliaries of the Catholic Centro Italiano Femminile (CIF) and the leftist Unione Donne Italiane (UDI) were new organizations led to a growing legitimacy for women in politics after the war. 【D'Amelio】
D'Amelio, Dan A. "Italian Women in the Resistance, World War II" Italian Americana (2001) Vol. 19, No. 2, PP. 127–41. .
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