Where are the women?

Finding a complex problem for a problem-based learning unit can be daunting, but it does not have to be an earth-shattering or brand new issue to launch into a PBL unit and include students in the process. March is traditionally Women’s History Month and it spawned this question in my mind: where are the women in Italian history? Do we even learn about important Italian women or their significant accomplishments? Go ahead. My first challenge to you is this: how many Italian historical or contemporary figures can you name in 30 seconds (or a minute, if you need it)?

I think most people would come up with a list similar to mine (in no particular order): Amerigo Vespucci, Cristoforo Colombo, Dante (maybe even including Petrarca, Boccaccio), Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Claudio Baglioni (for those of us who were teenagers for Sanremo 1985), Guglielmo Marconi, Enrico Fermi, Renato Zero, Jovanotti, Zucchero, Eros Ramazzotti, Marco Polo, Galileo, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Verdi, Puccini, Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Garibaldi, Volta, Maria Montessori, Giorgia Meloni. All men, except two – and to be honest I think only teachers and parents of young children from higher-income communities would name Montessori. I Googled “famous Italians” and the top list “from sources across the web” presents a list of 15 names, only 2 of them women (Sophia Loren and Rita Levi-Montalcini; Maria Montessori did not even make this top 15). The second top search result, the Superprof blog’s “The Most Famous Italian People Throughout History” asks us in the subtitle “Did you know Italy has a long-standing history of producing famous people?” and continues, telling us that “[i]n both ancient and modern history, Italy is home to many famous names” but gives us a list of 19 names, only 3 of whom are women. More astonishingly, the women in both of these top Google search results are only from the entertainment, fashion/design, or culinary industries; you know, those industries in which it is hard but not impossible to excel if you’re a woman, because they focus on what we are socialized to think as “female”: beauty/good looks, art, food.

Project-Based Unit on Women in Italy

So, again I ask: where are the women? This is the topic of my next unit with my Grade 8 Italian class, though I think this can be broached at all grade levels 5-12, and even in beginning and intermediate level higher ed courses. For upper level courses, even in high school, I might ask students to define more complex issues facing women and ask them to research more individual and abstract topics (such as the gender disparity in wages in the US and in Italy, femminicidio, etc.). For this project, and remembering the steps of designing a PBL experience, I have defined the problem in my question and I will ask my students to come up with some solutions for bringing visibility to women who have shaped or are shaping Italian society and culture across the sectors that my students identify from doing the same first activity I have just asked you – naming the famous Italians they know and then putting each into knowledge categories, industries, or disciplines (scientists, artists, etc.). This would be where I would also try to guide them for the last step in a PBL unit: creating and disseminating a public product. I anticipate students may come up with solutions involving making posters to hang in our hallways for everyone in our school community to see, or creating social media campaigns and inviting the community to participate (I strongly lean towards the hanging posters in the hallway for the middle school age groupbut this would be a great idea for high school as well! For college students, perhaps they can organize a mini conference for the greater student body to attend).

Significant Women in Italian History

In order to discover the women of Italian history, you have to be deliberate in your online search term. Googling “famous Italian women” results in quite a few articles and blogs. One article, 10 Incredible Italian Women who made History (ArtViva, a Rick Steves Recommended Italian tours and events company), begins by telling of “the first women’s march ever” in ancient Rome, when women flooded the streets of Rome against a law that severely curtailed their right to inherit, their right to wealth; the women succeeded in convincing the ancient Roman government to repeal the law.

Italian Women of Law

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (June 5, 1646-July 26, 1684), Bettisia Gozzadini (born 1209-November 2, 1261), Giustina Rocca of Trani (born second half of the 15th century-died 1502), and, of course, Lidia Poët (August 26, 1855-February 25, 1949)

Google “the first woman to earn a college degree in Europe” and the top results yield Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, a noblewoman from Venice who is credited with earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Università di Padova in 1678. After attaining her degree, she also lectured in Mathematics at the same university. However, deeper research yields the name of Bettisia Gozzadini who, in 1237, graduated with a degree in law from the Università di Bologna (the oldest university in the Western world, founded in 1088). It is reputed that she was later appointed to teach at this same university, becoming the first female university professor. There is not much actually known about Bettisia, though legends abound, but the Museo della Storia di Bologna displays a bust of her.

Given the dates, I would argue that Bettisia Gozzadini was Italy’s (and the Western world’s) first woman lawyer, though others, including the online Enciclopedia delle Donne, claim that Giustina Rocca of Trani (Puglia) holds that title. Giustina Rocca has gone down in history as the first woman lawyer in the world for winning an arbitration on April 8, 1500 and asking the unsuccessful party to pay her a fee equal to that of the male lawyers of the time. Indeed, the Court of Justice of the European Union named its highest tower (29 floors, 118 meters high) after her. Rocca Tower is the tallest building in Luxembourg, reaffirming the Court’s “commitment to equal opportunities.”

In spite of Netflix’ claim, Lidia Poët was not the first female lawyer in Italy. However, that does not discount her achievements. She was not only graduated in Law from the University of Turin in 1881, she was also admitted to the bar in 1883. Sadly, because of her gender, she was disbarred after practicing for only three months. She did continue working in the legal field, essentially doing all the work of a lawyer except arguing in court, in her brother’s law office. This experience galvanized the Italian women’s suffrage movement; Lidia was active in the women’s movement at an international level. Ultimately, Italian law did finally acknowledge that women were capable of holding public professions and offices, by Law No. 1176 of July 17, 1919 and Lidia was again admitted to the Turin bar in 1920, at the age of 65.

The Italian Peninsula, a land of many talents

The Italian peninsula has given Europe and the world many important discoveries as well as many important artists, authors, musicians. Women of the Italian peninsula have been breaking barriers since at least the Middle Ages, as you can see from the short list of women I have introduced above. Unfortunately, to find them, you need to do a bit of digging with refined searches. March 8th is the festa della donna in Italy and in honor of le donne, I will be writing about the accomplishments of other important women in a couple more blog posts. Please feel free to add your own, or to comment below of any you would like to make sure I mention! It is important for our students to be able to formulate research questions and to learn about the contributions of as many Italians as possible to their fields!