The leaflet was published by a local branch of the League in Crotone, Calabria, to be handed out at an International Women’s Day event in the southern Italian city.
The six-point manifesto also included attacks on the LGBT community, migrants, the concept of surrogate pregnancies and Italy’s so-called “pink quotas” - quotas introduced in 2015 that aim to improve equality in Italian workplaces.
The leaflet showed support for League leader Matteo Salvini’s campaign to put the words “mother and father” on Italian childrens’ identity cards, and claimed that the “dignity of women” was offended by a “political culture that claims self-determination and arouses rancorous attitudes towards men”.
The leaflet sparked outrage on social media, attracting angry responses from even the League’s own followers.
“I had to read it six times to make sure it wasn’t a joke,” wrote one user.
“And the natural role of a man would be what? To hunt wild boar with a club?,” asked another.
Female members of the Five Star Movement (M5S), the League’s coalition partner, released a group statement declaring the leaflet was “shocking” and “takes us back decades”.
Maria Edera Spadoni, vice-president of the Chamber, said the flyer contained “delusional concepts, out of time, backwards, which are not included in the government contract”.
Meanwhile, members of the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) said the flyer “aimed to take women back to the Middle Ages”.
Senator Alessia Rotta, of the PD, described the flyer as “a list of clichés and insults as well as an attempt to relegate women to a reproductive role”.
Salvini on Wednesday told the media he didn’t know about the flyer, adding “I don’t agree with some of the contents”.
Giancarlo Cerrelli, the secretary of the League’s Crotone branch, told the Guardian that the flyer was intended to promote “the great social role of women” and that its message has been misinterpreted.
“I’m not allowed to say anything more than that,” he concluded.
