A unique, if problematical, historical source for the study of the ‘private sphere’, the problem page has, as yet, been the subject of little serious attention. This article initially considers the problem page in general terms, and with particular reference to 1950s Italy, a time when a notable feature of the changing patterns of cultural consumption was the emergence and upsurge in popularity of the weekly magazine. The rest of the paper is devoted to an analysis of best-selling author Alba de Céspedes' agony column, ‘Dalla parte di lei’, published in the magazine Epoca. The article shows that the column provides intriguing insights into the state of family and marriage during a time of transition. It discusses the idea of the agony column as a commodity, but also highlights de Céspedes' aim of providing a kind of compendium of lay morals, arguing that any attempt to provide an alternative to the Catholic Church, and the prevailing conservative attitudes of the time, was a matter of careful negotiation.

At the end of the Second World War, politicians and social observers apprehensively considered the condition of the family and its destiny and role in post-war Italy. As well as informing political discourses and sociological examinations, the family became a privileged terrain for medical and psychological enquiry, with particular attention given to parenthood and the maternal role of women. The article explores the role played by religious and medical authorities in shaping narratives of parental responsibilities during the post-war years. The interplay of biology and morality in medical discourse and Catholic teaching is discussed in the context of debates about motherhood and the management of childbirth. Particular attention is given to discussions about the use of pain relief in labour and the reception by Italian Catholic gynaecologists of the so-called ‘natural childbirth method’, advocated during the post-war period by a number of European and American practitioners.

From 1942 to the late 1950s, about 240,000 Italians fled from Istria and Dalmatia, territories included in the new Yugoslav Federal Republic. The last movement of population took place after the London Memorandum in 1954, when the portion of territory closest to Italy (‘Zone B’) was given to Yugoslavia. About 40,000 Italians took part in this last exodus, and most of them were peasants wishing to settle in Trieste. The article describes the adaptation of social behaviours and gender roles among Istrian peasants as they faced new urban realities and modernization in the exodus. Oral sources, personal memoirs, literature and other documents are used to reconstruct the process by which rural communities moved from pre-war stability to change and transformation as they integrated within urban society in Trieste. In this process, gender and familial roles were significantly affected and redefined.

The family in Italy lies at the centre of an apparent paradox. On the one hand, it appears stronger in its traditional form based on marriage and on intergenerational solidarity than in most European countries. The normal way of living for couples is marriage, marriage instability is lower than the European average, and births out of wedlock are scarce. On the other hand, with its low fertility and long permanence of children in their parents’ household, Italy appears to be a country where the forming of new families and the reproduction of families is most difficult. This article explores the reasons for this paradox, many of which lie in the persistent gender division of labour and in the lack of supportive family policies. At the same time the article shows that despite the apparent stability of the family many changes are under way, some of them dating back to the early 1960s: not only because of fertility decline, but also due to women's changing patterns of behaviour and expectations.

This article explores contemporary notions of Italian kinship—procreation, the family, biological and social relatedness—as they are shaped by programmes of gamete donation (these are programmes that require the use of third-party egg and semen to achieve conception). The research was carried out in Italian clinics of assisted conception and presents the views of heterosexual couples suffering from impaired infertility. The overall material reveals the power of kinship as a cultural form.

This article reports the main findings of a paper first presented in May 1996 at a study conference organized by the Reform Commission of the Higher Council for the Judiciary (Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura, CSM). That presentation was published in full in Quaderni del Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura, 1, 99, 1998, pp. 1–84. For reasons of space, most of the evidential materials are omitted here.