 Over the opposition of the left-wing parties who wanted the "institutional question" resolved by the Constituent Assembly, De Gasperi announced that a referendum would be held to decide the "institutional question".At the same time, Italian women were given the right to vote and to hold office for the first time, again over the opposition of the left-wing parties, who viewed Italian women as more conservative than their menfolk, and believed that female suffrage would benefit the monarchist side in the referendum.The monarchists favored putting off the referendum as long as possible, out of the hope that a return to normalcy would cause the Italians to take a more favorable view of their monarchy while the republicans wanted a referendum as soon as possible, hoping that wartime radicalization would work in their favor.