Giorgia Meloni is Italy's first woman prime minister, but she is choosing to refer to herself using the masculine form of her new title – sparking a debate on the issues of female empowerment and political correctness.

In Italian, names can take a masculine or feminine form and Meloni's formal title of "Presidente del Consiglio" was preceded by the masculine article "il", rather than the feminine "la", in the first statement issued by her office on Sunday. A letter from Meloni read out in parliament on Monday did likewise.

While a trailblazer for women in Italian politics, she heads a far-right party and is not known as a feminist: She opposes female quotas in boardrooms and parliament, arguing that women should rise to the top through merit, and appointed just six women to her 24-strong cabinet on Friday.

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Moreover, other recent political appointments have been criticized as reactionary. A pro-Russia, anti-gay politician was elected speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament, a day after a nationalist lawmaker who collects fascist memorabilia became speaker of the Senate.

The Senate selection of Ignazio La Russa, a veteran of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party who in 2018 showed off his keepsakes of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was expected, but the Chamber of Deputies' choice of Lorenzo Fontana was a surprise.

Fontana – a member of Matteo Salvini's League party, which has aligned with Meloni's Brothers of Italy and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia to form a strongly right-leaning government – is controversial for his socially conservative views. 

He has said that same-sex families "don't exist," that gay marriage and mass immigration threaten to wipe out Italy's traditions, and called for the repeal of a 1993 anti-fascist and anti-racist law that, among other things, makes it a crime to propagate "ideas based on racial or ethnic superiority or hatred."

Criticism of Meloni's choice

Meloni's choice of the feminine definite article was criticized by Usigrai, the main trade union at state broadcaster RAI, as well as by Laura Boldrini, a feminist center-left lawmaker and former speaker of the lower Chamber of Deputies who was always known as "la presidente" in that role.

Under RAI's corporate gender policy, the feminine form should be used whenever it exists, and "no colleague can therefore be obliged to use the masculine" to refer to Meloni, Usigrai said in a statement.

Boldrini linked the prime minister's linguistic choice to the name of her party, Brothers of Italy (FdI).

"The first female prime minister goes by the masculine name ... Is using the feminine form too much for the leader of FdI, a party that already omits Sisters from its name?" Boldrini tweeted.

The Accademia della Crusca, a guardian of the Italian language, has said using the feminine for positions held by women is the grammatically correct choice.

However, anyone who prefers to use the traditional masculine form, for ideological or generational reasons, has every right to do so, its president Claudio Marazzini told Italian news agency Adnkronos.