Italy's first woman minister
Tina Anselmi died at her home in Castelfranco Veneto on Tuesday
aged 89.
Anselmi joined the Resistance at the age of 17 in 1944,
working as a message courier codenamed Gabriella, the same year
she joined the Christian Democrat party that would go on to
dominate postwar Italian politics.
She joined Christian trade unions, campaigned tirelessly
for equal opportunities and became Italy's first female cabinet
member in 1976 when Premier Giulio Andreotti named her labour
minister. She later served as health minister.
In 1981 she was named to lead a parliamentary commission of
inquiry into the subversive Propaganda Due (P2) masonic lodge,
and in 1984 filed a damning report on its activities.
In later years she was frequently mentioned as a token
candidate for Italian president.
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