New Identities: Reflections on Gender Inequalities in Italian Identity Documents

Abstract

Abstract: The recent Italian debate upon the wording of identity documents gives us the opportunity to focus on the relationship between politics and law in issues raised by gender-based discriminations. The essay aims at investigating asymmetries and discriminations entailed by the normative perspectives on identity that the world of politics offers today to the Italian society. At this purpose, once introduced the debate upon the wording of the identity documents, the essay describes how these documents depend on birth certificates, how both kind of documents became part of the modern States and how their templates changed along time; finally, it considers if and how the actual different perspectives upon the wording of these documents comply with the changing nature of public order.

Keywords: identity, gender, birth certificate.