Introduction: Gender and the Private Sphere in Liberal and Fascist Italy

The studies collected in this volume were originally presented as papers at a conference held in the Italian Cultural Institute in London in November 2002.1 The idea behind the conference was to bring together scholars, including both established and younger researchers, doing innovative work on gender in the private sphere in Italy in the last two centuries. One of the motives for choosing this particular theme was the fact that, to date, the bibliography in English on modern Italian gender and women’s history tends (although far from exclusively, as should be clear from some of the notes to this chapter) to focus more on aspects of the public sphere, such as the role of women in politics and extra-domestic employment.2 The public sphere has, of course, long had a particular fascination for feminist historians, doubtless because it is often seen to represent ‘where we aim to be’ rather than ‘where we are’ or ‘where we have been’. The historiography in Italian is, admittedly, somewhat different, particularly with reference to the nineteenth century where, until recently, very few historians of women and gender (the main exception being Annarita Buttafuoco)3 have paid much attention to the public sphere.4