Lidia Poët

Lidia Poët
Born(1855-08-26)26 August 1855
Perrero, Kingdom of Sardinia
Died25 February 1949(1949-02-25) (aged 93)
Diano Marina, Italy
Alma materUniversity of Turin (1881)
OccupationLawyer

Lidia Poët (Italian pronunciation: [ˈliːdja poˈɛt]; 26 August 1855 – 25 February 1949) was the first modern female Italian lawyer. Her disbarment led to a movement to allow women to practice law and hold public office in Italy.

Career

Poët was born in 1855 in the hamlet of Traverse, Perrero, in the Occitan-speaking Germanasca Valley, into a Waldensian family. She passed her law examinations at the Faculty of Law of the University of Turin and received her degree on 17 June 1881.[1] For the following two years, she "attended forensic practice" in the office of a lawyer and assisted at the sessions of the tribunals. She then underwent the theoretical and practical examination of the Order of Lawyers of Turin and, approved by 45 of 50 votes, was enrolled in the roll of lawyers (albo degli avvocati) on 9 August 1883.

However, the enrollment of a woman on the roll "did not please" the office of the attorney general (procuratore generale), who entered a complaint with the Court of Appeal of Turin. Despite rejoinders, arguments, and examples of women lawyers in other countries (such as Clara S. Foltz), the attorney general argued that women were forbidden by law and public policy to enter the milizia togata (i.e. the judiciary). The Court of Appeal subsequently found that Poët's enrollment was illegal. She appealed to the Supreme Court of Cassation, but the decision of the lower court was confirmed in 1884 and Poët was precluded admission as a lawyer to the Turin bar association.[2][3]

Public debate ensued, with 25 Italian newspapers supporting women's public roles and only three against. Those against made statements such as that the only men who supported women's public roles were themselves unmarried celibates. A teacher at the University of Padua named Taverni interviewed the U.S. Minister to Italy, William Waldorf Astor, and reported that he said "that the public opinion of the Americans was not in favor of the exercise of professions by women, inasmuch as the female physicians, lawyers, etc., practicing in America, do not belong either to the aristocracy of money or to that of intellect." However, Taverni himself favoured public lives for women, as it would save the 250,000 "unmarriageable" Italian women who, unless society gave them a role, would spend their lives without an occupation.[citation needed]

Following the decision of the Court of Cassation, Poët worked in the legal office of her brother, Enrico Poët,[3] doing in practice the work of a lawyer even though she could not sign letters or plead in court. When her brother departed for Vichy in France each year, she took over the practice entirely, and when necessary, sought out male colleagues to plead in court on behalf of her clients.[4]

All of this aside, the central questions came down to whether a husband would be liable for his wife's practising the legal profession, and whether in professional titles the words in the masculine gender were meant to apply to men only. Even as recently as 1996, female lawyers were addressed as "Miss" or "Mrs".[5]

Later life

Memorial plaque for Lidia Poët in Turin

For the rest of her life, Poët was active in the international women's movement.[citation needed]

Under Law n. 1176 of 17 July 1919, women were allowed to hold certain public offices. It was not until 1920 that Lidia Poët, as a 65-year-old woman, was enlisted in the record of the members of the Council of Lawyers and officially recognized as a lawyer, when finally enrolled in the roll of Turin.[6]

She died in the seaside resort of Diano Marina in 1949.[1]

Lidia Poët's life is stylized in the Netflix TV series The Law According to Lidia Poët and played by Matilda De Angelis.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Lidia Poët". Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Essere donne nell'Italia repubblicana – Storia di un percorso impervio: l'accesso alla magistratura" (PDF) (in Italian). University of Bergamo. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  3. ^ a b G. P. (18 April 1884). "Udienza 18 aprile 1884; Pres. Eula PP, Est. Talice, PM Calenda (concl. conf.)—Poët Lidia (Avv. Spanna e Bernardi)". Il Foro Italiano (in Italian). 9: 341–342, 353–354. JSTOR 23090644. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  4. ^ Kay, Fiona M. (2007). "The Social Significance of the World's First Women Lawyers". Osgoode Hall Law Journal. 45 (2). Osgoode Hall Law School: 410. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020.
  5. ^ Ceschini, Roberta (January 1996). "The Role of Women in the Italian Legal System" (PDF). Georgia State University Law Review. 21 (2). Georgia State University College of Law: 434. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  6. ^ Skuza, Sylwia (2014). Mackowicz, Jolanta (ed.). The social and legal status of women in Italy between the XIX and XXI centuries. Pedagogical University of Cracow. p. 35. ISBN 978-83-7850-685-0. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  7. ^ "Lidia Poët". IMDb. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.

Sources

  • Albisetti, James C. (2000). "Portia ante portas. Women and the Legal Profession in Europe, ca. 1870-1925". Journal of Social History. Carnegie Mellon College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
  • Bounous, Clara (1997). La toga negata. Da Lidia Poët all'attuale realtà torinese [The toga denied. From Lidia Poët to the current Turinese reality] (in Italian). Pinerolo. ISBN 9788881700363.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Raichich, Marino (1989). "Liceo, università, professioni: un percorso difficile" [High school, university, professions: a difficult path]. In Soldani, Simonetta (ed.). L'educazione delle donne: Scuole e modelli di vita femminile nell'Italia dell'Ottocento [The education of women: Schools and models of female life in 19th-century Italy] (in Italian). Milan. pp. 151–53. ISBN 9788820431822.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Ricci, Cristina (2022). Lidia Poët. Vita e battaglie della prima avvocata italiana, pioniera dell'emancipazione femminile [Lidia Poët. Life and battles of the first Italian lawyer, pioneer of female emancipation] (in Italian). Turin: Graphot & LAR. EAN 9791280629111.
  • Santoni de Sio, Ferdinando (1884). La donna e l'avvocatura [Woman and the legal profession]. Rome.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Throop, Montgomery Hunt (13 December 1884). "Woman and the Legal Profession". Albany Law Journal: 464–467.

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