Credits: Maurizio de Luca
Where are we?
We are in San Sosti
This municipality was administered by Caterina Tufarelli Palumbo, who at the age of just 24 became, 24 March 1946, the first woman mayor elected in Italy.
Caterina “Ketty” Tufarelli Palumbo, born in Nocera (Calabria) in 1922, was elected Mayor of San Sosti on 24th March 1946. In San Sosti, as in other areas, the local elections of 24th March preceded the referendum and Constituent Assembly vote of 2nd June 1946. Caterina was among the women who, for the first time in Italy, were able to exercise their right to vote and be elected.
As Mayor, she found herself managing a comune marked by poverty and hardship in the southern areas, where there were significant problems regarding work, health, and education. Her friendship with the daughters of Alcide De Gasperi, who had meanwhile become Prime Minister, meant she was able to obtain funding to build the town hall and cinema, to create schools, roads, an aqueduct, and a covered market, and to set up facility dedicated to supporting the poorest families. Her life was distinguished by the care she gave to the unfortunate and most in need, a mission to which she dedicated herself for over thirty years as President of the Ladies of Charity, an organisation linked to the Catholic Church, until her death in 1979.
San Sosti named its Town Hall after her, and her portrait is among those on display in the hall dedicated to women of the Chamber of Deputies, which celebrates the first Italian women to hold positions in political institutions.
Facility or museum: no
Geographic location: San Sosti (CS), Calabria
To know more
