Strength in diversity? An interpretation of Feminism/s in Italy With Chronology 1250-2016

Abstract

Feminism as a mass movement in Italy reached its peak in the Seventies with the massive demontrations demanding new laws regarding the family and abortion. Throughout the centuries however, there had been instances when women had rebelled against the status quo, and expressed their discontent in writings, orally in folk cultures, and also legally in different parts of the peninsula. Italian feminism has always been characterised by its fragmentation and variety of diverse aims, beliefs and projects, linked also to the social and regional background of the women involved. The diverseness has been, and still is, both a strength and a weakness. It is a strength because local groups can understand and reflect in their aims and platforms the concerns and needs of the women belonging to the district / city / provincial community. At a national level though, it is a weakness, since the many associations populating even remote areas of Italy rarely come together to fight as a united front to achieve common goals, in order to continue to improve women’s condition, social, cultural, economic, epistological. It is crucial that all women, especially the younger generations, become aware of the long history of womens’ struggle made up of lost and won battles, and that it is not over. Knowledge is power. Acceptance and denial instead disempower women across the globe. Feminism is not a dirty word and must continue to prosper. Is is not about “absolute power”, wome are still not equal and do not have equal opportunities in many fields, despite belief to the contrary (Barraclough, 2016), stating that “Feminism doesn’t care about women”. Hence publications such as the present, counteracting the hegemonic discourse proliferating also thank to young women journalists (in Australia), drawing mainly from Pizzey and Shapiro (1982) and her most recent studies on domestic violence, are crucial in the trasmission of knowledge about past and current efforts.[