International Women's Day, traditionally celebrated internationally on March 8, is dedicated to the struggles women have waged for social, economic, and political gains and against the discrimination and violence they have suffered throughout the world.

Stand, gentlemen, before a woman (from "Don Quixote" by Il Teatro di Ipazia)

 

Stand up, gentlemen, in front of a woman 

Standing,

stand, gentlemen, in front of a woman,

for all the violence committed against her,

for the humiliations he suffered,

for that body of his that you exploited

for the intelligence you have trampled

for the ignorance in which you kept her

for that mouth you covered

for her freedom that you denied her

for the wings you clipped

for all this

stand up, gentlemen, stand in front of a lady.

And if that's still not enough for you,

stand up every time she looks at your soul

because she knows how to see it

because she knows how to make it sing.

Standing, always standing,

when she enters the room and everything resonates with love

when she caresses your tear,

as if you were his son!

When she's quiet

hides in his pain

his terrible desire to fly.

Don't try to console her

when everything collapses around her.

No, just sit next to her,

and wait for his heart to calm its beating

may the world turn peacefully again

and then you will see that she will be the first

to reach out and lift you off the ground,

rising towards the sky

towards that immense sky

where his soul belongs

and from which you will never tear it away

for this standing

upright

in front of a woman.

 

(Anonymous)

Every year on March 8th, we celebrate women: their rights, their achievements. The fight for what's missing from gender equality is still ongoing.

Photo gallery

    

 

Bibliography

Enough!: Women's Power Against Testosterone Politics / Lilli Gruber. – Milan: Solferino, 2019.

Peace to all men of good will. But war on others. Because we've had enough. Chauvinistic attacks online, fights, rapes, murders. The invisibility of women, excluded from decision-making roles. In a word: machismo in power. For too long, we've been governed by the testosterone-fueled internationalism: Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Johnson... The result: an unmanaged migration emergency, a never-ending economic crisis, a planet in flames. And a climate of arrogance and hatred that fosters the spread of populism and undermines democratic institutions. So, spare us more aspiring autocrats with more belly than substance and give us more girls. Feisty athletes like Milena Bartolini, determined activists like Greta Thunberg, authoritative politicians like Ursula von der Leyen and Christine Lagarde, and, across the pond, Nancy Pelosi. We will be satisfied when we have achieved the right objectives: equal pay and 50 percent representation on boards of directors, in parliaments, and in governments.

 

 

Dear Ijeawele: Fifteen Tips for Raising a Feminist Girl / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; translated by Andrea Sirotti. – Turin: Einaudi, 2017.

Adichie has written an intense pamphlet in the form of a letter, with a confidential yet political tone. “Motherhood is a fantastic gift, but avoid defining yourself only in terms of motherhood. Be a whole person. In these first weeks as a new mother, be kind to yourself. Ask for help. Demand help. There are no Superwomen. Never tell your daughter she has to do something or not do it ‘because you’re a girl’. ‘Because you’re a girl’ is never a good reason. Under any circumstances.” What does it mean to be a feminist today? First of all, to reclaim your own importance, both as an individual and as a woman; to demand the right to equality without any ifs or buts. And what does it mean to be a feminist mother? To not stop being a woman, a professional, a person, and to share the responsibility equally with your partner. Show your daughter the traps set by those who want to cage her in a predefined role through physical or psychological violence, and explain to her that that role has no real value and that she can choose to be whatever she wants. Make her understand that her dignity doesn't depend on the gaze and judgment of others, and that her fulfillment won't depend on pleasing that gaze.

 

The Catalogue of Valorous Women / Serena Dandini; collages by Andrea Pistacchi. – Milan: Mondadori, 2018.

The protagonists of this book are thirty-four women: enterprising, unconventional, often persecuted, sometimes misunderstood, yet strong and generous, always ready to fight to achieve goals that seemed unattainable, if not downright unthinkable: from Ilaria Alpi, the journalist killed while investigating uncomfortable truths, to Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon; from Hypatia, who in the 4th century, against ecclesiastical prohibitions, dared to scan the sky to reveal the movement of the planets; to Olympe de Gouges, author of the revolutionary "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen" in 1791; and Betty Boop, who, despite being just a paper woman, nevertheless faced censorship due to her exuberance. While awaiting official recognition, the author has placed alongside the protagonists of her book an equal number of roses that farsighted nurserymen have created for these courageous women. "This catalogue does not have the encyclopedic pretension of doing justice to the collective amnesia that has deprived history of an essential part of its family tree, but only wants to give you a "taste" of that submerged epic." Serena Dandini brings back to readers the lives of formidable women, to nourish their memory and so that they can be an example for new generations..

 

Women's Bodies / Lorella Zanardo. – Milan: Feltrinelli, 2010.

For years, Italian women have been silent. Fortunately, not the author of "Women's Bodies." She rebelled against the media dictatorship by using the same television images that daily offend women's dignity for her exposé documentary. "Why do Italian women continue to endure a television that profoundly humiliates them?" asks Lorella Zanardo. "Why have women silently internalized the supposed male model of beauty, and why do Italian women agree to work more than all other European women?" Through the comments sent to her by readers of the blog ilcorpodelledonne.com, Lorella Zanardo realizes that women's silence is confined to the public sphere, while in the private sphere, profound changes are underway that society and politics are unable to recognize. Lorella Zanardo says: "If with the documentary I set out to build women's awareness, to stimulate it and, if possible, to deepen it, starting with the damage caused by television, the book also proposes a concrete method for educating young people to critically view the media: 'New Eyes for TV' thus becomes a training program for immediate and concrete change." More than a manifesto, more than the reconstruction of a period of struggle against television arrogance, "Women's Bodies" is, first and foremost, the story of a woman who has finally said enough to the media's abuse of the female body.       

                         

The Disobedient: Stories of Six Women Who Changed Art / Elisabetta Rasy. – Milan: Mondadori, 2019.

What connects Artemisia Gentileschi, raped at eighteen by her father's friend and later a protagonist of 17th-century painting, to an icon of 20th-century beauty and charm like Frida Kahlo? What is the connection between Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, forced into exile by the French Revolution, and Charlotte Salomon, persecuted by the Nazis? Is there something that connects the elegant Berthe Morisot, of whom Édouard Manet dedicated impassioned portraits, to the transgressive Suzanne Valadon, lover of Toulouse-Lautrec and many others in Belle Époque Paris? Despite their differences in historical era, setting, and character, one essential trait unites these six painters: talent above all else, but also the strength of desire and the courage to rebel against the rules imposed by society. Each of them, in fact, has harnessed a special quality of soul to counteract their own fragility and the assaults of life: ancient feminine resources, such as courage, tenacity, and endurance, or vices transformed into virtues, such as restlessness, rebellion, and passion. Elisabetta Rasy recounts, with tireless attention to the intimate details that shape a destiny, the lives of the six painters in their irreducible singularity. The self-portraits that open Elisabetta Rasy's intense pages look the reader in the eye and invite us to discover the boldness with which they fought and won the uphill battle to assert themselves—beyond prohibitions, obligations, misunderstandings, and prejudices—changing forever, with their work, the image and place of women in the art world.

 

On Their Own Mind: Ten Women Who Shaped the Twentieth Century / Marta Boneschi. – Milan: A. Mondadori, 2002.

Overlooked by the great history, these pages bring to life ten rebellious girls who, through joys and sorrows, successes and disappointments, managed to achieve their goals. Maria Montessori and Rita Levi Montalcini stubbornly fight to enroll in medical school; Angela Merlin and Teresa Noce oppose fascism; Franca Valeri and Alida Valli make their way in the world of entertainment. Luisa Spagnoli creates an immortal chocolate with "Il Bacio" (The Kiss), in an all-male business world; Armida Barelli organizes millions of young Catholic women; Lucia Bosé, when her success fades, is able to start over; Franca Viola takes her rapist to court.

 

 

A Woman / Sibilla Aleramo; preface by Maria Corti. – Milan: Feltrinelli, 1994.

This novel by Sibilla Aleramo dates back to 1906. Its immediate success in Italy and the countries where it was translated signaled a new writer, who would later provide further proof of her worth, particularly in poetry. But above all, it attracted attention for its theme: it is, in fact, one of the first "feminist" books to appear in Italy.

 

 

 The Woman Who Lived for a Dream / Maria Rosa Cutrufelli. – Piacenza: Frassinelli, 2004.

A champion of women's emancipation during the French Revolution, Olympe de Gouges authored the celebrated "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen" and spent her life fighting to realize the dream of a society of free and equal individuals. This book retraces her life, filling in some historical gaps and mysteries through narrative invention. But Olympe's story is intertwined with the voices of the women who lived through the Revolution with her, in a tumultuous and exhausted Paris, the Paris of Robespierre and the Terror. Servants and commoners, nobles and artists, young women inflamed by the tyrant and ambitious informers form a female chorus that narrates the beauty and horror of that time.

 

 

 Woman at War / Maraini Dacia. – Turin: Einaudi, c. 1980.

A novel in which Dacia Maraini successfully captured not only a woman's yearning for redemption, but also the social tensions and revolts of young people. A return to a morally disintegrating Sicily, an encounter with a group of young non-parliamentarians, and political and class struggle as a means of commitment to others and personal self-realization.

 

 

 

 Women Like Us: 100 Stories of Italian Women Who Achieved Exceptional Things. – Milan: Sperling & Kupfer, 2018.

We women need inspiration. And therefore, a narrative of women's achievements and successes. We need "women who help women." Telling stories has never been so important. One hundred stories of contemporary women who, through their strength, tenacity, expertise, and courage, have achieved something that is changing the world. Women who break down gender stereotypes with their choices and actions. Women who demonstrate in the field how belonging to this gender is an opportunity rather than a limitation. Powerful and moving stories that, through achievements and successes, inspire women to continue their revolution in the family, in the workplace, and in society. Female stories capable of pointing the way to a better future for all.

 

 

 Women Enter the Stage: From Suffragettes to Feminists / Annie Goldman; translated by David Scaffei. – Florence: Giunti, 1996.

Ours has been the century in which women have made decisive progress in all areas of public and private life. From the suffragettes of the early 20th century to the feminist movement of the 1970s, the history of women's achievements is marked by a series of successes but also by unresolved issues. Work, education, individual rights, legal equality, divorce, contraception, abortion: these are just a few of a repertoire of achievements that have transformed the relationship between men and women. The diversity of women's and feminist perspectives on the world has changed the way we view the many aspects of daily life and relations between the sexes. But the Western model, which remains a benchmark for women's emancipation, also shows its limits: when will we achieve true equality in the workplace and in politics? And what conclusions can we draw from the condition of women in countries like Tunisia, India, Iran, and Algeria, where the persistence of centuries-old traditions continues to exert a heavy burden?

 

 Pregnant Women: Italy and Gender Inequalities / Alessandra Casarico and Paola Profeta. – Milan: Egea, 2010.

The gender gap between women and men in education has long since closed. Women now outnumber men in terms of graduates. But women are still waiting: not so much for children (few are born), but for employment, professional growth, power, and decision-making roles in business, politics, and science. Why must women be kept waiting? Are there economic reasons for this delay? Keeping them out of employment and power has negative effects that should be clear to everyone: it's a waste of talent. More women in employment, smaller wage gaps, more women in leadership, and greater equality in the family would have beneficial effects for society as a whole. This is why we must stop seeing waiting as a women's problem. It's time for men to say enough, too. So what should we do? The authors put forward concrete proposals, suggesting some key policies to promote women's employment and careers and to break the cycle of waiting.

 

Women in European History: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day / Gisela Bock; translated by Benedetta Heinemann Campana. – Rome: Laterza, 2006.

One day, while Europa was playing with her friends on the seashore, Jupiter swam up in the form of a bull and kidnapped her. Representations of this myth show a frightened Europa sadly bidding farewell to her companions. Europa's descendants demanded peace and freedom. But have they succeeded in achieving freedom? Gisela Bock, within the framework of a cultural history of gender relations, traces the life, work, and legal situations of women from the Middle Ages to the present, their ideals and realities, and their arduous struggle for civil, political, and social rights.

 

 

 Becoming a Woman: An Anthology of Feminist Thought / edited by Eleonora Missana. – Milan: Feltrinelli, 2020.

The anthology focuses on the relationship between feminism and philosophy in the contemporary age, presenting thinkers who, in different ways, identify as feminists and/or postfeminists and who have created works that have now become classics. A fundamental issue serves as a common thread: the question of the "subject" and the exploration of female and feminist subjectivity. The anthology's "situated" nature, divided into four sections, is revealed in its decision to begin with a presentation of French and Italian thought on difference, from Luce Irigaray to Luisa Muraro and Adriana Cavarero, before moving on to other approaches to exploring sexual difference and feminist subjectivity, such as that of so-called "postmodern" thinkers: from bell hooks to Gloria Anzaldúa, from Rosi Braidotti to Teresa de Lauretis and Judith Butler. The aim is to showcase a plurality of voices that are not always in agreement. In the third and fourth sections, the selected texts offer a more specifically political reflection on other issues, such as the relationship between science and feminism or women and biotechnology, as in the texts of Donna Haraway and Françoise Collin, and the theme of justice and the distribution of rights in the era of transnational capitalism, as in those of Nancy Fraser, Seyla Benhabib, Rada Ivekovic' and Gayatri Spivak.

 

Il The Genius of Women: A Brief History of Female Science / Piergiorgio Odifreddi. – Milan: Rizzoli, 2019.

The first is Hypatia, an astronomer and eclectic scholar in the learned city of Alexandria between the 4th and 5th centuries. Then come Hildegard, the visionary who intuited the importance of the body (a dangerously unconventional idea in the Middle Ages); Madame de Chatelet, Voltaire's companion; and Sophie Germain, a friend of Gauss, both lovers of science and unconventional women in the Age of Enlightenment. With masculine admiration, Odifreddi reconstructs the life paths, the difficulties they faced, the strokes of genius, the absolute dedication and freedom of thought of figures such as Rita Levi-Montalcini and Maryam Mirzakhani (the first female Fields Medal winner); Marie Curie and astronaut Judith Resnik; the unbeatable chess player Judit Polgár; and the Chinese pharmacist Tu Youyou, a Nobel Prize winner in Medicine. Reading this book is a journey into the versatility of the female mind, capable of reaching the highest peaks in all disciplines, advancing humanity. At the same time, it can serve as an inspiration to today's young women, so that they can finally approach scientific studies without an unjustified sense of inadequacy.

 

Young Women: The Female Footballers Who Challenged the Duce / Federica Seneghini; with an essay by Marco Giani. – Milan: Solferino, 2020.

Rosetta, sixteen years old, with the sacred fire of football in her soul. Giovanna, for whom the team's adventure is also a political gesture. Marta, wise and calm but determined to fight for the freedom to play. And then the courageous Zanetti who kicks off the match, the strategist Strigaro who writes to the newspapers, the stubborn Lucchi who struggles to overcome her father's opposition... These are the friends who, in the early 1930s, founded the Gruppo Femminile Calciatrici Milanonese, the first women's soccer team in Italy. But Italy at the time was fascist, and as the group gradually grew, becoming a real team and starting to make headlines in the newspapers, the regime became alarmed. Of course, these young women gave themselves shorter playing times and looser rules, ensuring they didn't want to compromise their "primary function" as mothers. They took to the field wearing socks and black skirts so as not to offend morals. But they were still women, and soccer was a man's sport. Not to mention the fact that Giuseppe, Giovanna's husband, ends up in trouble with the political police. Federica Seneghini tells the story of friendship, play, and struggle of these soccer pioneers like a novel, amidst exhilarating victories, humiliating setbacks, unexpected allies, and steadfast enemies. Carefully reconstructed and accompanied by an essay by Marco Giani, which traces decades of discrimination against women in soccer, this compelling glimpse into our past is also a valuable reflection on the injustices that still dangerously exist in our present.

 

The Great Women's War: Roses in No Man's Land / Alessandro Gualtieri. – Fidenza: Mattioli 1885, 2012.

A world at war with women, women caught up and thrown into the social conflict that erupted far from the actual trenches, yet still on the front lines, on that vast battlefield of pain that was the "home front." This research begins with the humiliating nineteenth-century perception of women, viewed as slaves, breeding stock, objects of paid pleasure, like perishable and expendable consumer goods, irrelevant to the socio-political changes of even the now-developed nations of post-Risorgimento Europe. The Great War, a global conflict whose global scale involved every continent and its populations, in the broadest sense of the term, contributed significantly to the revaluation of women. Like a stone, the Great War shattered patterns of behavior and relationships between genders and age groups, as well as between various social classes, calling into question hierarchies, distinctions, and authorities thought to be immutable. This effect, temporarily contained by repressive legislation, would emerge more widely in the postwar period, helping to give social struggles, including those for women's rights, that stamp of radical upheaval of the existing order that would change the world forever.

 

Invisible: How Our World Ignores Women in Every Field. Data in Hand / Caroline Criado Perez; translated by Carla Palmieri. – Turin: Einaudi, 2020.

In a society built in the image and likeness of men, half the population—women—is systematically ignored. This is evidenced by the shocking lack of available data on women's bodies, habits, and needs. Smartphones, developed based on the size of men's hands; average office temperatures, calibrated to men's metabolisms; and medical research, which excludes women from tests "for the sake of simplification." Drawing on these surprising cases and examining countless others, Caroline Criado Perez launches an unprecedented investigation that shows how the lack of gender data has created a pervasive and latent bias that has profound, sometimes even fatal, repercussions on women's lives.

 

 

 The Book of Feminism. – Milan: Gribaudo, 2019.

If you're a feminist, or simply want to learn more about the concept, you'll find plenty to ponder by expanding your knowledge of the development of feminism across the centuries and across cultures! Are women born or made? Can a man be an authentic feminist? What needs does feminism address in the twenty-first century? This book answers these and other questions, exploring the struggle for gender equality throughout the centuries. Written simply and directly, "The Book of Feminism" includes theories, memorable quotes, anecdotes, and images that shed new light on our perceptions and ideas surrounding feminism. Furthermore, the book explains how the very concept of feminism has changed the course of history for women and men, from its roots through the Enlightenment to the present day and the #meToo phenomenon.

 

 Morgana: Stories of Girls Your Mother Wouldn't Approve of / Michela Murgia, Chiara Tagliaferri. – Milan: Mondadori, 2019.

It's a women's story that sets no limits because the book's very goal is to abolish them. The female figures featured here are extraordinary women, who have pushed the boundaries of accessibility previously established by the male world. Every time Marina Abramovic has received recognition or taken a step forward, Morgana, the powerful and dangerous sister of the famous King Arthur, steps into society and represents all women, allowing their gaze to finally see beyond, waiting for these stories to no longer need to be told. Murgia and Tagliaferri, however, go further, spying on women through a feminine magnifying glass because often, precisely among themselves, they are considered dangerous witches, threatening something powerful and pre-established. The Ginger Rogers syndrome, that idea that women are better regardless and therefore can share a stage with men, but only while wearing dizzying stiletto heels, is shattered by Murgia and Tagliaferri. “Morgana” is indeed a celebration of strength and diversity, of a package of emotions and skills that push the reader ever further.

 

Pride and Prejudice / Tiziana Ferrario. – Milan: Chiarelettere, 2018.

This book begins one morning in Washington, January 21, 2017, the day of the historic march of one million women against President Trump, and travels live across the United States to Italy. A journey filled with encounters and passionate, often difficult, stories, many of them unknown. A powerful narrative that captivates us page after page, always focusing on the facts and what remains to be done to achieve true equality. Women have once again raised their voices, demanding equal career opportunities, equal salaries, and equal rights. From champion athletes to brilliant scientists, from Hollywood actresses to the many ordinary women preparing to enter politics in search of revenge. From self-esteem courses for girls to college experiences where efforts are being made to stem the tragedy of rape. And also the journalists from the world's most important newsrooms who have faced exceptional challenges head-on. You'll read stories of famous women like Megyn Kelly, a Fox News and NBC star who dared to challenge Trump live on TV, and stories of unknown but equally powerful women, like the Italian bookseller who promotes science textbooks for girls (because science and math aren't just for boys, on the contrary). Always with the focus on our country, where much progress has been made but much remains to be made towards a more equal society.

 

Passion and hard work: organizational and internal obstacles to women's careers / Maria Cristina Bombelli. – Milan: Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2004.

The achievement of roles of responsibility and autonomy in the professional field has significantly changed women's approach to the world of work, profoundly impacting female identity. Today's woman attempting to ascend to positions of power is very different, yet at the same time bound to caregiving responsibilities, which have always been a female prerogative. Women who could access positions of power describe more intense and different challenges than men's. The author seeks to distinguish organizational challenges from those related to skills that women have yet to develop. For passion to overcome hardship, women must learn to choose the organizations to which they contribute their talents.

 

When all the women in the world… / Simone de Beauvoir; edited by Claude Francis and Fernande Gontier. – Turin: Einaudi, 2006.

Family, contraception, love, abortion, violence: through articles, interviews, and notes, Simone de Beauvoir unreservedly addresses the condition of women and urges men and women to consider true gender equality a necessary achievement for the progress of society. Published in Italy in 1982, the militant pages of this book retain an extraordinary and searing relevance, especially today when some civil rights, achieved thanks to the struggles of the feminist movement, are being questioned by certain political and religious circles.

 

   

Portrait / Joyce Lussu; preface by Giulia Ingrao. – Rome: L'asino d'oro, 2012.

The ironic and unprejudiced autobiography of an unyielding woman. From 1920s Florence to Jaspers's Heidelberg, from clandestinity to the anti-fascist war, from her encounter with the great patriot Emilio Lussu to her travels in search of poets to translate, from Giustizia e Libertà to '68, from feminist struggles to those of the Kurdish people and finally to environmentalist struggles. The story of a woman who didn't want to be considered special, yet was ahead of her time. The story of a woman who, with simple, sincere, often powerful and disarming words, makes us reflect on public and private issues, on war, politics, religion, on important and profound realities such as the relationship between man and woman and the relationship between parents and children. The story of "a woman for," or "constructive, generous, capable of seeing the positive side and the possibilities of life," as Giulia Ingrao writes in her preface.

 

Holy Patience: The History of Italian Women from the Postwar Period to Today / Marta Boneschi. – Milan: A. Mondadori, c. 1998.

Through the testimonies of well-known and lesser-known women, the analysis of news stories and the contributions that radio, television, advertising, photo novels and magazines have made to the formation of female identity, Marta Boneschi tells us how the world has changed more rapidly for women than for men, making us relive the least bloody and most successful revolution of our century.

 

 

The Century of Women: Twentieth-Century Italy Through the Lens of Women / Elena Doni, Manuela Fugenzi. – Rome; Bari: Laterza, 2001.

Was the twentieth century truly "the century of women"? One might doubt this when one considers that in the 21st century, gender equality in work and homemaking was far from achieved. In the twentieth century, however, women developed a different self-concept: today, they no longer see themselves as complementary or secondary to men. And they have achieved the freedom to choose their lives in work, marriage, and, for the first time in history, motherhood. The stories and images of Italian women of the past century.

 

 

 If You Are Born a Woman / Oriana Fallaci. – Milan: Rizzoli, 2019.

Oriana Fallaci's career is studded with encounters with the female figures of her time, beginning with her first news articles commissioned by "Europeo." The journalist met models, singers, Cinecittà actresses, and Hollywood stars, as well as fashion figures like Coco Chanel and Mary Quant, who would become icons for generations to come. During the roaring years of feminist protest, she interviewed the movement's protagonists, such as Kate Millett, closely observing the epochal changes that would shape Italy, most notably the referendum on divorce. In the 1970s, the period in which she collected interviews with world leaders, she met Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi, painting portraits not only of two exceptional political figures but also of two unique female profiles. Oriana Fallaci observed and described a twentieth century that saw a significant transformation in the role and status of women, particularly in the Western world. She herself, on the other hand, embodied the ideals of concrete feminism in her life: she believed in the profound freedom to be whatever she wanted until the end of her days. This book brings together a selection of pages dedicated by the Florentine journalist to the female universe: interviews, investigations, and portraits never before collected in a volume. These pages reveal her cutting judgment and her unique vision of women: creatures who should always and necessarily be free.

 

If Not Now, When?: Against Violence and for the Dignity of Women / edited by Eve Ensler with Mollie Doyle; translated by Annalisa Carena. – Milan: Piemme, 2012.

In our parts, it's insidious, creeping, hidden. Even glamorous. In some parts of the world, however, it's blatant and brutal. So commonplace it seems inevitable. It's violence against women. It's the war on female dignity. Sprawling and multifaceted. Women victims of political rape, kidnapped and beaten because they're weak pawns on the chessboard of tribal conflicts. Wives who suffer in silence within the walls of their homes. Daughters who watch their mothers remain silent for years in the face of absurd religious impositions. Eve Ensler, a champion of women's rights, leads a chorus of passionate and authoritative voices that becomes a cry for freedom. To say that being a woman today is still not easy, because there is a tendency to deny that violence, in its many forms, exists. These stories—touching, angry, emotional, and at times light-hearted and poetic—remind us that women's dignity is a good that must be protected and defended by all. To make the world a better place.

 

Be beautiful and shut up: why today's Italy offends women / Michela Marzano. – Milan: Oscar Mondadori, 2012.

This book is an act of resistance. Faced with the insults and humiliations that women in Italy suffer today, as a philosopher, I felt compelled to abandon the ivory tower in which intellectuals often entrench themselves and explain the dynamics of oppression that imprison Italian women. The goal is simple: to give all those who desire it the critical tools necessary to reject subservience to male power. Why do women continue to give in to the temptation of guilt and, for fear of being considered 'unworthy mothers,' abandon all professional aspirations? Why are so many women judged 'failures' or 'incomplete' when they don't have children? Why do many adolescents think that the only way to succeed in life is to 'be beautiful and keep quiet'? Why does the female body continue to be commodified? Why are we witnessing the return of a retrograde ideology that seeks to turn back the clock and call into question the female achievements of the 1960s and 1970s? Philosophy is an effective and powerful weapon, the only tool capable of helping women take back their lives and no longer allow anyone to humiliate or silence them.” Michela Marzano

 

A Room of One's Own / Virginia Woolf; translation and preface by Maura Del Serra. – Rome: Newton Compton Editori, 2013.

A distinguished pioneer of twentieth-century women's manifestos and Woolf's first brilliant intervention on the theme of "women and writing," this essay is a short, ironically imaginative treatise, highly personal in its tense balance of tones and motifs: conversational, literary projections, social analysis, satire. The leitmotif of the room, womb and prison of the female soul, expands to encompass all the spaces of the human abode: nature, culture, history, and "reality" itself in its disturbing and exhilarating multiplicity. Introduction by Armanda Guiducci.

 

 

 On the Rights of Women / Mary Wollstonecraft; preface by Eva Cantarella. – Milan: RCS Quotidiano, 2010.

“After long reflections on history and after diligently observing the reality that surrounds us, I have found myself sad and indignant. Indeed, I have had to admit, despite myself, that the differences between human beings have not been established by nature, but by civilization itself. After reading many books on pedagogy, I have observed the behavior of parents and the school system. What have I deduced from all this? I have convinced myself that inadequate education is the primary cause of the shortcomings I deplore…” In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft shocked the British community with a surprising and groundbreaking work. On the Rights of Women, an objective and critical examination of women's position in society, shedding light on the causes, consequences, and injustices of dogmas and prejudices considered correct only out of habit or convenience, pointing the finger at her own sisters who willingly accept their fate rather than rebel. A precious historical document, one of the first works that laid a solid foundation for the fight for women's rights.

 

 

Bibliography Sardinia

 

Words Ahead: Third Millennium Feminism / Claudia Sarritzu. – Cagliari: Palabanda, 2018.

This essay on gender discrimination and violence observed by journalists in Italy. It analyzes the media's discourse and that of our everyday lives. It explains the need for a new feminism, from Sardinian to Syrian women, from Italian to Brazilian machismo.

 

 

 

 Sardinia through Women: Stories of Special Women. – Cagliari: L'Unione Sarda Publishing Company, 2016.             

The book spans a millennium: from the Middle Ages of Judge Elena di Lacon to the present day, with the recollections of the scholar of Sardinian identity, Nereide Rudas. There is no shortage of historical curiosities about Sardinia's first medical graduate, Paola Satta, as well as a completely new profile of Grazia Deledda. World-famous stars of entertainment such as Carmen Melis and Giusta Manca di Villahermosa are also included, as are energetic figures of faith such as the first Sardinian blessed, Maria Gabriella Sagheddu, and the anti-Nazi nun Giuseppina Demuro. The numerous and well-documented forays into Sardinian history make the book a valuable teaching resource for our schools, aiming to enhance and deepen our children's awareness of the history and identity of our land's autonomous journey.

 

 

The extraordinary story of Francesca Sanna Sulis, a woman from Sardinia / Ada Lai. – Cagliari: Palabanda, 2017.

The incredible story of Francesca Sanna Sulis (1716-1810), who in the 18th century, starting in Muravera, became an entrepreneur and fashion designer of European renown. Her intuition to raise silkworms was the beginning of her fortune: the silk produced in her workshops in Quartucciu became the most prized and sought-after in all international markets. She founded vocational schools and secondary schools to provide education for the poorest; she dealt personally with the powerful minister Bogino; she became a business partner of Count Giulini; and she witnessed the expulsion of the Piedmontese from Cagliari in 1794. A woman who managed to combine business with solidarity and women's emancipation.

 

 

 

Bibliography for children

 The Declaration of the Rights of Women / Elisabeth Brami, Estelle Billon-Spagnol. – Milan: Lo stampatello, 2015.

Girls, like boys, have the right to be disheveled, flayed, tattered, agitated, and to choose the career they prefer. They have the right to be good at math, not necessarily to be princesses. In a society where the market offers rigid gender models and where every toy and every outfit has a male and a female version, we want to remind people that there are a thousand ways to be male and female. All deserve respect.

 

 

 

 Malala: My Fight for Girls' Rights / Malala Yousafzai; with Patricia McCormick; illustrations by Joanie Stone; translated by Sara Caraffini. – Milan: Garzanti, 2018.

The youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner shares her story as an activist for the right to education. In a new version for younger readers. Before becoming a world-famous activist, Malala was just a girl ready to fight for everything she believed in. But in what was once a peaceful valley in Pakistan, girls are suddenly banned from school, and Malala risks her life to defend the right to an education. In this new, abridged version of her memoir, enriched with illustrations, a glossary, and a timeline, we follow the extraordinary story of a girl who refused to be silenced and who today shares with her readers the importance of taking a stand against hatred, offering a message full of determination and hope. Recommended reading age: 6 years and up.

 

I'm Not a Feminist, But...: Everything You Need to Know About Women's Struggles / Sophie Grillet; translated by Carola Proto. – Milan: A. Mondadori, 1999.

Reading this book means setting aside folklore and clichés to discover everything you ever wanted to know about the battles, hopes, stubbornness, dreams, and courage of thousands of women who over the centuries have fought for themselves, for their rights.

 

 

 

Equality in Small Steps / Carina Louart; illustrations by Penelope Paicheler; translation and adaptation by Stefania Baldoni. – Florence; Milan: Giunti, 2017.

The status of men and women is not always equal. In Italy, women's right to vote was only recognized in 1945, and in some parts of the world, women still have to ask their husbands' permission to work. For some time, various voices have been raised to demand equal rights for men and women: thus, the idea of ​​equality was born.

 

 

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Lives of Extraordinary Women / Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo; translated by Loredana Baldinucci. – Milan: Mondadori, 2017.

Once upon a time… a princess? No way! Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to go to Mars. Another girl became the world's best tennis player, and yet another discovered the metamorphosis of butterflies. From Serena Williams to Malala Yousafzai, from Rita Levi Montalcini to Frida Kahlo, from Margherita Hack to Michelle Obama, 100 women are featured in these pages and portrayed by 60 illustrators from around the world. Scientists, painters, astronauts, weightlifters, musicians, judges, chefs… examples of courage, determination, and generosity for anyone who wants to achieve their dreams.

 

 

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls 2 / Francesca Cavallo, Elena Favilli; translated by Loredana Baldinucci and Simona Brogli. – Milan: Mondadori, 2018.

Once upon a time, there were a hundred girls who changed the world. Now there are many, many more! "Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls" has become a global movement and a symbol of freedom. Authors Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli return with a hundred new stories to inspire girls—and boys—to dream without limits: Audrey Hepburn, who ate tulips to survive hunger and went on to become an unrivaled style icon and extraordinary philanthropist; Bebe Vio, a fencing champion despite a serious illness; J.K. Rowling, who turned failure into strength and changed the history of literature forever. Poets, surgeons, astronauts, judges, acrobats, entrepreneurs, volcanologists: a hundred new adventures, a hundred new portraits to inspire us further and tell us that at every age, era, and latitude, it is always worth fighting for equality and moving quickly toward a more just future.

 

Comics

 

Mean Girls: 15 Stories of Bold and Creative Women / Assia Petricelli and Sergio Riccardi. – Rome: Sinnos, 2017.

Fifteen stories of bold, creative, courageous, and revolutionary women return in a new, essential and disruptive color and typographical format. From Olympe de Gouges to Nellie Bly, from Marie Curie to Hedy Lamarr, fifteen well-known and lesser-known stories, told with passion and activism. Recommended reading age: 12 and up.

 

 

 

 Fearless Women: 150 Years of Women's Emancipation as Never Told / Marta Breen, Jenny Jordahl. – Milan: Tre60, 2019.

Women around the world have fought and continue to fight for their emancipation and rights. This book tells the story we all should know. It is the journey our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers have undertaken to get to where we are today. Women Without Fear is the illustrated account of this journey, seen through the lives of several iconic women: from the anti-slavery activist Sojourner Truth to Olympe de Gouges, who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, from Margaret Sanger, who created the first women's clinic, to Malala, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the many women of the #MeToo movement.

 

Filmography (DVD)

  Hidden Figures: Based on an Untold True Story / Director of Photography Mandy Walker; Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi; Directed by Theodore Melfi. – Milan: Warner Bros. Entertainment Italia, 2017.

Hidden Figures is the incredible, untold story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, three brilliant African-American women at NASA who worked on one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a momentous achievement that not only restored national confidence but also reversed the Space Race and galvanized the entire world. These three pioneers—overcoming every barrier—have been an inspiration for generations.

 

 

Frida / a film by Julie Taymor; starring Selma Hayek …et al.; director of photography Rodrigo Prieto; music by Elliot Goldenthal; based on the book by Hayden Herrera. – Milan: Eagle Pictures, 2011.

Frida Kahlo is the artist who, more than any other, succeeded in constructing a powerful autobiography through images, capable of telling her story with intensity: the physical pain, the drama of betrayed love and abortions, her political commitment. But who was Frida, really? Actress and director Asia Argento leads the viewer on a journey to discover the painter's two faces, exploring her letters, diaries, and private confessions.

 

 

The help / based on the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett; music by Thomas Newman; cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt; adapted for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor. – Milan: DreamWorks II Distribution, 2012.

Mississippi, 1960s. Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young woman from Jackson, in the southern part of the state, dreams of becoming a writer after finishing her studies. When she begins writing a housewife advice column for a local newspaper, she turns to Aibileen, her best friend's maid, who begins to tell her the moving story of her life. Skeeter, encouraged by a New York editor, becomes involved in writing a secret project that exposes the racial discrimination faced by black women who have always been caregivers in the area.

 

 

Malala / a film by Davis Guggenheim ; music by Thomas Newman ; director of photography Erich Roland. – Italy: Twentieth Century Fox, 2016.

An intimate and personal portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and seriously injured by a hail of bullets while returning home on a school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Then fifteen (she turned 18 in 2015), she and her father were targeted for their advocacy for girls' education, and the attack sparked outrage and protests from supporters around the world. A miraculously surviving victim, she now leads a global campaign for the right to education for girls and boys around the world, as co-founder of the Malala Fund.

 

 

Mulan / directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft; produced by Pam Coats. – Walt Disney Home Entertainment; Milan: Buena Vista Home Entertainment distributor, 2004.

After discovering that her elderly father has been called to defend China from the Hun invasion, young Mulan disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the imperial army. There, she will train alongside a group of warriors led by Captain Shang. Along with her dragon Mushu and the lucky cricket Cri-Kee, she will bring victory to her nation and honor to her family.

 

 

Persepolis / a film by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud; with the voices of Sergio Castellitto, Paola Cortellesi, Licia Maglietta; Satrapi; BIM: 01 Distribution, c2008.

In "Persepolis," the author's personal story intertwines with the history of a country, Iran. In 1984, when she was only fifteen, Marjane Satrapi was forced to leave Tehran, where she lived with her parents, because life for a teenager at the time was impossible. She went to Austria, where she experienced the alienation of a different culture and the feeling of uprootedness that always accompanies every exile. Then she went to Paris, studied, and grew up. And at a certain point, she felt the need to share her story, picking up paper and a pencil. The book traces the steps that led from comic to film, with interviews with the author, the director, and the artists, and documents the film's reception in Iran and the West through articles and reviews.

 

  Suffragette: The Women Who Changed the World / directed by Sarah Gavron; music by Alexandre Desplat; cinematographer Edu Grau; written by Abi Morgan. – Rome: Rai Cinema; 01 Distribution, 2016.

The story of the militants of the very first feminist movement, women forced to operate underground to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal state. Fighting for the right to vote, they belong to the educated and wealthy classes, some of whom are employed, but all are forced to realize that peaceful protest yields no results. Radicalizing their methods and resorting to violence as the only path to change, these women are willing to lose everything in their fight for equality: their jobs, their families, their children, and their lives. Maud was once one of these militants. The story of her fight for dignity is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

 

 

We Want Sex Equality: The Strike That Changed History / A Film by Nigel Cole; Screenplay by William Ivory; Music by David Arnold. – Rome: Lucky Red, 2010.

Dagenham, England, 1968. Led by the voluble and feisty Rita O'Grady, 187 Ford sewing machine workers decide to go on strike to protest unbearable working conditions and the long hours robbed of their family life. With humor, common sense, and courage, the workers manage to gain the unions', the local community's, and finally, thanks to the fight of MP Barbara Castle, the government's, laying the foundations for the Equal Pay Act.

 

 

All the books, comics, and DVDs listed (and much more on the subject) are available in our libraries. 

  

Sitography

 

 

Videography

 

Goal #5 – Gender equality

 

International Women's Day: How the March 8th Celebration Came to Be

 

Beautiful Politics – The Conquests of Women Who Changed Italy

 

International Women's Day: 10 Women Who Made History with Their Courage

 

Women who changed history…

 

March 8: A Day for Women's Rights

 

Beauty is… Women's Rights Around the World – ActionAid

 

Will women ever win the race for equality in sports?