This book offers the first source-based and internationally contextualised analysis of the feminist movement that swept 1970s Italy, presenting a new interpretation of its origins, development, and long-term impact. It transforms our understanding of Italian politics and society during the crisis of the "long 1970s" by focusing on the relation between political conflict and gender roles. In addition, the book opens up new questions in the emerging international historiography on "second-wave" feminism.
Maud Anne Bracke is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow.
Introduction 1. Contextualising Italian Feminism 2. Women, "Wounded Emancipation", and the Crisis of Patriarchy (1945-69) 3. Feminism of Difference: A New Movement and Politics (1968-83) 4. Sexuality, Reproduction, and Self-Help Clinics in Rome 5. Work, or the Question That Never Went Away: Trade Union Feminism in Turin 6. Naples: The Unfinished Revolution 7. Feminism, the End of the First Republic, and "Berlusconism" (1980s-90s). Conclusions.