Simonetta Ulivieri

Articles for DWF

Books reviewed by DWF


Articles for DWF


Italian Women in Education - From Unification to the present day: laws, prejudices, struggles and perspectives, (Part 1), 1977, n. 2, pp. 20-47

At the time of Italian Unification ideas on education for women differed little from those of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Casati's law of 1859 did create, at least on paper, compulsory education, but it also sanctioned the division and differentiation of education according to sex. The "moral considerations" which served to justify the deliberate limits set to the education of girls, did not in any way limit, however, the exploitation of minors, boys and girls alike, in the labour force, and this exploitation is amply documented.

Anna Maria Mozzoni, one of the founders of Italian bourgeois feminism, demanded co-education, and women's right of access to all institutions of education. Schoolmistresses - the only career open to women - were no less discriminated against. They suffered moral subjugation and were paid less than men. At the beginning of the twentieth century, with the strengthening of the socialist party, there was wider discussion on women in education, and the women teacher's struggle for equal pay found a place in the wider context of working class struggles.

Read the abstracts of the whole issue
go up


Italian Women in Education - From Unity to the Present Day: Laws, Struggles and Perspectives, (Part 2), 1977, n. 3, pp. 115-140

In part two of her analysis of women in the teaching profession the author looks at the fascist years, and the Resistance. The fascist period was noteworthy for the dismissal of women from teaching in history and philosophy, for their exclusion from all rectorships, and for its generally unfavourable attitude towards working women. In the Resistance, on the other hand, women took part in the armed struggle and in the reconstruction of the country.

Read the abstracts of the whole issue
go up


Italian Women in Education, from Unity to the present day: laws, struggles and perspective, (Part 3), 1977, n. 4, pp. 81-105

In part three of her analysis of women in the teaching profession the author looks at the post-war years up to our days. Though the Republic laid down, in theory, the principle of equality for the sexes, there was still flagrant discriminations in the sphere of work, and though a series of laws bettered the lot of women teachers, we still today have remnants of the fascist past. The article ends with an outline of the latest government proposals which have as their aim to put an end to all discrimination against women in the teaching profession.

Read the abstracts of the whole issue
go up


Books reviewed by DWF


ULIVIERI Simonetta (edited by), Essere donne insegnanti. Storia, professionalità e cultura di genere, Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, 1996
rev. by Annalisa Marino, 1996, n. 32, pp. 108-109

go up