Women In Milan Research Articles

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant women in Milan, Italy: A qualitative study involving key informants working in third sector organizations and public hospitals

Migrants and women were among the groups most adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic global disaster. Through an intersectional lens that considers both migrant and female identities, it can be inferred that migrant women were particularly vulnerable to the pandemic. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic on migrant women living in Milan (North-West Italy), by leveraging on the accounts of a pool of key informants (KIs). We performed an in-depth retrospective qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to explore the perspectives of KIs working in third sector organizations and public hospitals. After conducting an extensive mapping of organizations with experience working with migrants providing health, social, and/or administrative services during the pandemic, 28 KIs working in seven organizations were recruited. Interviews were transcribed and inductively analyzed. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing vulnerability factors affecting migrant women by triggering several cascading effects. The shutdown of services further marginalized them and hindered their regularization and empowerment path. Migrant women's financial situation was significantly impacted, as in most instances they had informal and gendered jobs. Caregivers and sex workers were the sub-groups most adversely affected by the pandemic. Episodes of gender-based violence appeared to rise, while requests for assistance declined. Accessing the vaccination campaign posed challenges for many migrant women, who at times tended to be skeptical about it. Third sector organizations, despite being confronted with several challenges, proved to be resilient during the pandemic and managed to find alternative methods to support migrant women, often filling institutional gaps.

From Novels to Figures, Themes and Strategies of a Political Practice PART II: Sexual Difference: An Occasion for Being

The present paper is the last of a series of three papers, constituting a whole project of translation and commentary composed of translated extracts from the “Catalogo no. 2 – Le madri di tutte noi”, published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore in 1982. The idea for the project was conceived by Silvia Niccolai and Angela Condello, who selected the extracts and provided the written commentaries on the original texts. The Yellow Catalogue, in which we find collective discussions, pages of personal diaries and, overall, the enterprise of a group of women debating over their literary symbolic mothers (who to read? And why?), is an interesting example of a political use of literature. After four decades from its publication, it still proposes inspiring and fresh suggestions for feminist political action and critique, while representing an interesting occasion for researching the philosophical roots of feminism. In particular, the debate on the literary “mothers,” i.e. on the female authors that can contribute to the formation of a feminine symbolic, shows the kind of concerns of difference feminism in Italy (especially during the Seventies). The text offers, in other words, the opportunity to enter a world that nowadays – with the new, varied streams of feminism and the battles over the neutralization of sexual identity – is less frequent, and nevertheless we find it important in order to understand the social, political and cultural power of feminism. The project is composed like follows: Paper No. 1, In search of a feminine symbolic, by Angela Condello, already published on Law& Literature and Paper No. 2, From Novels to the Figures, themes and strategies for a political practice. Paper No 2 is structured in two parts. Part One, entitled “Interest in Reality.” For every woman’s autobiography, by Silvia Niccolai, is already published in Law & Literature; Part Two is the present paper: coauthored by Angela Condello and Silvia Niccolai, it addresses issues of sexual difference, identity and ambiguity, and the theories behind the idea of body and life at the core of the Catalogue.

The Mothers of Us All: Extracts, with Comments, from the “Yellow Catalogue” Published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore – Paper No. 2: From Novels to the Figures, Themes and Strategies for a Political Practice

The present paper is the second of three, constituting a whole project of translation and commentary composed of translated extracts from the “Catalogo n. 2 – Le madri di tutte noi,” published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore in 1982. The idea for the project was conceived by Silvia Niccolai and Angela Condello, who selected the extracts and provide the written commentaries on the original texts. The Yellow Catalogue, in which we find collective discussions, pages of personal diaries and, overall, the enterprise of a group of women debating over their literary symbolic mothers (who to read? And why?), is an interesting example of political use of literature. After forty decades from its publication, it still proposes inspiring and fresh suggestions for feminist political action and critique, while representing an interesting occasion for researching the philosophical roots of Feminism. The projects is composed like follows: Paper No1, In search of a feminine symbolic, by Angela Condello, already published on Law & Litterature and Paper No2, From Novels to the Figures, themes and strategies for a political practice. Paper No 2 is structured in two parts. Part One is the article here presented (Part One. “Interest in Reality.” For every woman’s autobiography) written by Silvia Niccolai; Part Two is the article Sexual difference: an occasion for being, coauthored by Angela Condello and Silvia Niccolai, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of this Journal.

Thematic Review on Women’s Perception of Safety While Walking in Public Space: The STEP UP Project

The contributions of this paper are the result of a thematic review conducted on some of the most relevant scientific contributions and policy guidelines about women’s perception of safety while walking in public spaces. The first part of the review focused on 23 scientific references revolving around the keywords “gender”, “safety” and “walkability”. This led to the establishment of three main Safety Factors: (i) Spatial Features (space characteristics/morphological features); (ii) City Use (traces of behavior and presence of city users); and (iii) Hotspots (safe havens and no-go areas); further resulting in 19 sub-factors. The second part of the review covered a collection of 20 reports and 10 guidelines focused on diverse geographical scales, areas of interest and target audiences, as well as data collection methods. This involved the selection of multiple case studies, which are also presented, thus maintaining a geographically diverse sample. As part of the scientific research project “STEP UP—Walkability for Women in Milan”, the outputs of the proposed thematic review will be exploited to help identify challenging areas of Milan (Italy), as samples of analysis to develop a set of policy recommendations to enhance the level of walkability for women.

The Mothers of Us All: Extracts, with comments, from the ‘Yellow Catalogue’ published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore

The present paper is Paper No. 1, and forms part of a series together with Paper No. 2 (From novels to figures: themes and strategies of a political practice – Part I), and Paper No. 3 (From novels to figures: themes and strategies of a political practice – Part II; Sexual difference: an occasion for being). Papers No. 2 and No. 3 are forthcoming in Law & Literature. The three papers constitute a whole project of translation and commentary composed of translated extracts from the “Catalogo n. 2 – Le madri di tutte noi,” published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore in 1982. The idea for the project was conceived by Silvia Niccolai and Angela Condello, who selected the extracts and provide the written commentaries on the original texts. The Catalogue, in which we find collective discussions, pages of personal diaries and, overall, the enterprise of a group of women debating over their literary symbolic mothers (who to read? And why?), is an fascinating example of the collective work of feminist groups of women, the themes they addressed and their methodology. In particular, the debate on the literary “mothers,” on the female authors that can contribute to the formation of a feminine symbolic, shows the kind of concerns of difference feminism in Italy (especially during the Seventies). The text offers, in other words, the opportunity to enter a world that nowadays – with the new, varied streams of feminism and the battles over the neutralization of sexual identity – is less frequent, and nevertheless we find it important in order to understand the social, political and cultural power of feminism.

Female Freedom and The Neapolitan Novels (Part 2)

AbstractPart 1 of this essay began to develop a philosophical interpretation of The Neapolitan Novels by grounding a vision of the work's moral psychology in the tradition of Italian difference feminism, particularly as it is expressed in the texts of the influential Milan Women's Bookstore Collective. Part 2 advances the interpretive argument by presenting a more detailed literary analysis of the character of Lila Cerullo. After motivating the interest of various aspects of her symbolization by connecting them to important motifs in feminist philosophy and literature, I present evidence of Lila's special status in the work, and the puzzles this status raises. I advance a reading of Lila as a brilliant woman capable of playing the superior role in a hierarchical relationship of entrustment—and of The Neapolitan Novels as a sympathetic yet critical exploration of the viability of such relationships and their connection to female friendship and female freedom. In support of this reading, I give an account of Lila's strange condition of smarginatura (“dissolving margins/boundaries”), the import of her perplexing earthquake speech in which this condition is explicitly addressed, and Elena Greco's troubling reactions.

Generating Feminisms: Italian Feminisms and the “Now You Can Go” Program

The article concerns the development of the public events programme “Now You Can Go” that the author organised in collaboration with six feminist curators, artists and researchers, Angelica Bolletinari, Giulia Casalini, Diana Georgiou, Laura Guy, Irene Revell and Amy Tobin, in London, 2015. It discusses the programme’s exploration of early moments of feminist thinking, art and activism, particularly those from 1970s and 1980s Italy. Inspired by the name of Carla Lonzi’s 1980 book Vai Pure (Now You Can Go), the programme engaged with the implications of Lonzi’s tactics of withdrawal and renunciation: of art criticism, feminist leadership, and – as outlined in Vai Pure – romantic complementarity with a man. The essay explains how “Now You Can Go” also traced the legacy and current relevance of the practices of the Libreria delle Donne di Milano [Milan Women’s Bookshop] collective, Diotima in Verona, Cooperativa Beato Angelico in Rome, international Wages for Housework, and feminist thinkers including Adriana Cavarero, Silvia Federici, Lea Melandri and Luisa Muraro. Considering why this legacy has been under-translated and overlooked, Reckitt highlights the radicalism of Italian feminist stances on sexual difference, non-assimilation, and politicized relations between women. She discusses the artist Claire Fontaine’s formulation of Human Strike and its relationship to Italian feminist theory and practice. Reckitt highlights aspects of the “Now You Can Go” programme, including debates around social reproduction and gendered caring labour; the rehabilitation of women artists into the market and canon; and translating feminisms across time, place, context, and language. In approaching Italian feminism as a living archive that resonates in the present, she shows how the programme emphasised embodied experience, intimacy, dialogue and participation above spectacle and representation. Reflecting on what it means both to curate feminist context, and to curate as feminists, Reckitt underscores the need for attention to be paid to behind-the scenes, infrastructural conditions. In this context she describes her curatorial role as establishing a framework that seeks to engender collective exploration and subjective awakening.

Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Novel Screening Strategy for Improving Women's Health in Vulnerable Populations.

Background: Migrant women are one of the most vulnerable population to health problems and well-being. This study aimed at implementing a counseling and preventive strategy for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in undocumented migrant women in Milan, Italy. Methods: Women (ages 18–65) were enrolled at the NAGA Centre (2012–2013) and asked for a urine sample in order to carry out molecular detection of Human papillomavirus (HPV), Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), Trichomonas vaginalis (Tv), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng)-DNA. Socio-demographic and sexual behavior information were collected. All HPV/Ct+ women were offered Pap tests and/or were prescribed antibiotic treatment. Results: 537/757 women participated in the study (acceptability rate: 70.9%). Most of the women were from Latin America (45.6%) and Eastern Europe (30.7%); >60% of them had stable partners, did not use contraception and had had at least one pregnancy. The prevalence rates of HPV, Ct, Tv and Ng infections were 24.2%, 7.8%, 4.8% and 0%, respectively. In all, 43.2% of the positive women agreed to undergo a gynecological examination and accepted suitable treatment. Conclusions: This study shows an overall high prevalence of STIs in undocumented migrant women in Milan. The screening strategy based on counseling and urine testing contributed to the successfully high acceptability rate. More appropriate health services that adequately address all aspects of women’s health are required.

Homeopathic Arnica from Boiron and post-operative bleeding in mastectomized women in Milan: Statistical flaws and bias to be addressed

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Family Migration in Southern Europe: Integration Challenges and Transnational Dynamics: an introduction

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes on contributorsMaurizio Ambrosini is professor of Sociology of Migration at the University of Milan, Department of Social and Political Sciences, and chargé d’enseignement at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France). He is the editor of the journal “Mondi Migranti” and the scientific responsible of the Centre Medì – Migrations in the Mediterranean, of Genoa and of the Italian Summer School of Sociology of Migrations. His main interests cover immigrants’ labour market, ethnic entrepreneurship, migration policies. He is the author of more than 150 books, articles, essays in these fields, published in different languages. His handbook, Sociologia delle migrazioni, is adopted as the textbook in many Italian universities. His recent international publications include the book Irregular Migration and Invisible Welfare, Palgrave, 2013; and several articles, published in “Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies”, “Ethnic and Racial Studies”, “Journal of international migration and integration”, “European Journal of Migration and Law”, “International Review of Sociology”, “Migration Letters”, “Revue européenne des Migrations Internationales”, “Migraciones”.Paola Bonizzoni is a Lecturer in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan, where she teaches Sociology. She’s carrying out research on migrant citizenship and migration policies with a specific focus on the effects of migration law on gender and intergenerational relationships in immigrant families. She has recently published work on transnational family life, care-work reconciliation, immigrant youth’s experiences of migration and immigrant mothers’ support networks. Her recent publications include Immigrant Working Mothers Reconciling Work and Childcare: the Experience of Latin American and Eastern European Women in Milan. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 21(2), 194–217 (2014).Professor Anna Triandafyllidou directs the Cutural Pluralism Research Area within the Global Governance Programme, of the European University Institute (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies - RSCAS). Before joining the Programme, she was part time professor at the RSCAS (2010–2012). During the period 2004–2012, she was Senior Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) in Athens where she headed a successful migration research team. She is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges (since 2002), and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. Her recent books include Circular Migration Between Europe and its Neighbourhood: Choice or Necessity? (2013, Oxford University Press), European Immigration: A Sourcebook (2014, Ashgate, 2nd edition).

Immigrant Working Mothers Reconciling Work and Childcare: the Experience of Latin American and Eastern European Women in Milan

The aim of this paper is to provide an exploration of the work–family reconciliation processes of immigrant working mothers in Italy, through the analysis of fifty-six qualitative interviews carried out with Latin American and Eastern European female workers with at least one minor child living in Milan. The study highlights the strategies they followed to manage work and childcare under the unfavorable conditions posed by the intertwining effects of immigration, care, and employment regimes. These, leading to limited social and employment rights, also influence their kinds of participation in the labor market and constrain the geographical mobility of their family members, leading women to enact (over time but also simultaneously) pluri-local care strategies. While these can be interpreted as a further resource available to migrant families, they can also be seen as the outcome of a partial inclusion into the host society, showing new forms of inequality in the access of social care.

The Restoration of the Maternal Order. A Circle of Infinite? The Mother-Daughter Relationship in Carmen Martín Gaite's Lo raro es vivir

This article sets out from a quotation from Luce Irigaray relating to the circularity and potentially infinite nature of the relationship between mother and daughter. Using the thinking of sexual difference as developed by the Milan Women's Bookstore about the maternal symbolic order as its framework, it looks at Carmen Martin Gaite's 1996 novel Lo raro es vivir. It argues that in this novel, as never before in her work, there is an in-depth portrayal, sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit, of the mother/daughter relationship and its significance. As the very name of the main protagonist, Agueda, implies, we are shown the effects of the rupture, or estrangement, from that connection, and we are taken on a journey through to a reconciliation with the primary need, following Irigaray and Luisa Muraro, to be rooted in that relationship, whatever its quality, as a setting-out point that can generate order, both within and without.

Bodies, boundaries and desires: multiple subject-positions and micro-politics of modernity among young Muslim women in Milan

Over the last decade, Muslim women have been the focus of public attention in Western media and in political debates on women's bodies, their freedom and forms of religiosity. In this article, I explore the notion of ‘modernity’ as a lived and embodied experience, by analyzing the different religious performances and subject-positions that young Muslim women born or brought up in Milan from childhood articulate in their daily lives. The different self-narratives and forms of spirituality they perform ask for a rethinking of the dominant Western notions of citizenship, body and freedom.

Assessing female wealth in nineteenth century Milan, Italy

This article adds to the debate about women’s relations with business, finance and accounting by discussing the economic and social position of women in Milan, Italy during the industrialization era. The work utilizes the act of succession (probate records), a source extensively used in the Anglophone literature, and provides detailed information about the amount, distribution and concentration of female (and male) property. The findings are discussed in the light of many similar studies carried out in Common law countries, and the way the “egalitarian” legal context of a Roman law country affected women’s position as wealth holders is commented upon. The legal right to property was important, but not sufficient to grant Italian women equal access to it. This examination of inheritance practices shows that culture, custom and, most of all, the male dominated Catholic religion curbed women’s ability to accumulate wealth.

The Other (’s) Skepticism: Levinasian Reflections on Maternal Ethics and Feminist Politics

The essay begins by examining how much of feminist theory today remains tethered to “the skeptical problematic.” I argue that this tethering entangles feminists in unnecessary epistemological questions, ones which import into feminist theory an impulse to sovereignty and totalizing thinking. The cost of this impulse is the reduction of alterity into an epistemological schema of difference, as well as an obscuring of the political practices by which women affirm political freedom and ethical responsibility. Navigating various feminist authors with the critical lens of Emmanuel Levinas, I attempt to recuperate and refigure skepticism as an ethical phenomenon (rather than simply an epistemological problem), one which can serve as an opening for innovative forms of feminist praxis that affirm, rather than cover over, the alterity of the Other. I conclude by specifying a form of praxis that exemplifies the figuring of skepticism as an ethical issue by turning towards the practice of “entrustment” articulated by the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective.

Feminist Practice Meets Feminist Theory

It is always welcome to have a smart, committed feminist engage seriously with big questions of social and political all the more so when her work takes the variety of writings considered feminist seriously enough to them a central part of her project without simultaneously limiting herself only to those works. Zerilli's Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom puts thinkers as different from one another as Hannah Arendt and the Milan Women's Bookstore Collective, Emmanuel Kant and Monique Wittig into the same paragraphs, if not the same sentences. Moreover, her argument also offers a Eurocentric impulse to push American feminists past the stale equality-difference debate and the anxiety about collective action by women that seems to accompany it here. As a person who works on European feminism, I especially appreciate this attention to feminist writings about collective action that have not received the attention in the United States that they merit. Finally, Zerilli deserves a third round of applause for taking the rhetorical work of claims-making as the serious political action that I also think it is. Rather than taking political arguments as merely theory, she considers them as efficacious in their own terms, as means of making political subjects and actions real-izable by opening up new spaces in which struggles can and do occur. To meaningfully grant her those three kudos, this essay outlines the sense of her argument for those who have not yet read the book, as well as evaluates some of her claims. To do so, I take up each of these three praiseworthy contributions in more detail. I then turn to ask a few questions about the limits of her arguments, particularly as they might apply to creating the actual spaces for action that she expects political claims to do. The first thing to note about the work of feminist theoretical reflection that Zerilli offers is the scope of the previous work that she draws into her frame of reference. What Zerilli actually means by the of freedom is the radical uncertainty about the outcomes of their actions that challenges all actors who seek to make a difference in the world. But a second abyss addressed by Zerilli is the gulf usually seen between the philosophical concerns and approaches with which she deals. On the one side, she anchors herself in two of the classic authors of nonfeminist political philosophy, Emmanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt. On the other side, she builds directly upon two classics of contemporary European feminist theory - Monique Wittig's Les Guerillieres (1969/1985) and the Milan Women's Bookstore Collective's manifesto (1987). This latter book was actually translated into English under the title of Sexual Difference (1990), but as Zerilli points out, would more properly have been called What's Wrong with Rights. Stretching herself across the vast gulf between the classic thinkers on politics and second-wave feminists who attempt to theorize from their political practices, Zerilli attempts to provide a bridge strong enough to support liberatory feminist political claims. To construct such a structure

Book Review: Sexual Difference: A Theory of Social-Symbolic Practice

Book Review: Sexual Difference: A Theory of Social-Symbolic Practice

: Sexual Difference: A Theory of Social-Symbolic Practice . Milan Women's Bookstore Collective.

American AnthropologistVolume 94, Issue 2 p. 487-488 Sexual Difference: A Theory of Social-Symbolic Practice. Milan Women's Bookstore Collective. Mariane Ferme, Mariane Ferme Harvard UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Mariane Ferme, Mariane Ferme Harvard UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1992 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1992.94.2.02a00540AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume94, Issue2June 1992Pages 487-488 RelatedInformation

Provoking agents, vulnerability factors and depression in an Italian setting: a replication of Brown and Harris's model

The aetiological model of depression proposed by Brown and Harris in 1978 was examined in a sample of 120 women in Milan, using the same method for the assessment of life stresses. The role of provoking agents (severe events and major difficulties) was found to be similar to that of the earlier study. There was some evidence that lack of an intimate relationship with a husband or a boyfriend acted as a vulnerability factor, increasing the risk of depression in the face of provoking agents. The overall results support the Brown-Harris aetiological model in a quite different cultural setting.