Italy is a country mired in accusations of sexism. But, despite 17 years in the shadow of Berlusconi, Italian women are fighting back

Wor ds: Ben Marshall

Italy has a lot to be proud of. Italians have created some of the world’s most amazing pieces of architecture (the Sistine Chapel, Cathedral of Pisa, the Colosseum…) and produced some of history’s greatest film-makers, such as Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini. Italy is home of the Renaissance, producer of world-class poets such as Dante Alighieri, famous around the globe for its food and, of course, boasts the biggest fashion houses in the world.

However, there has always been one chink in the armour of this incredible country: a macho culture that has seen the voice of women often deemed secondary to men’s. Admittedly, Italy is far from unique in this, but it has lingered longer and is more prevalent than its European sister countries. However, a growing number of Italian women are working hard to change this. Across the country there is a rising hum of protest at the sexist leaders who have ruled their country with misogynist views and outdated opinions on what women are capable of achieving, the most notable of which happened in mid-February, 2011.

Demonstrators, mostly women, numbering more than a million, came out onto the streets and piazzas of Italy. They were joined by fellow women from other countries who organised simultaneous demonstrations in London, Boston, Tokyo, Brussels, and Athens. Demographically, they covered the full spectrum, ranging from teenagers to octogenarian nuns. The way one demonstrator remembers it, “Rich trophy wives in Dolce & Gabbana were standing alongside heavily tattooed radical feminists, while office cleaners joined hands with mergers and acquisitions lawyers.”

Only two things united them – the white scarf they wore around their shoulders and a burning desire for change. The nationwide protests were a reaction to one of the most astonishing stories in the annals of political scandal. It involved a 17-year-old girl called Karima El Mahroug and some of Italy’s most powerful men, foremost among them the billionaire businessman, TV and newspaper magnate and three times prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was accused of paying El Mahroug for sex. The organisers of the marches used social media to bring together women from all over Italy describing themselves as “neither desperate, nor housewives”.

On the day of the demonstrations Ida Poletto, one of the organisers of the march, told The Washington Post, “Women in this country are denigrated by the repeated, indecent and ostentatious representation of them as naked sexual objects on offer in newspapers, televisions and advertising. It’s intolerable.”

Growing Popularity

The Sciarpa Bianca (White Scarf) marches made headlines worldwide, but the groundswell of righteous anger that made them possible predates the demonstrations by at least 10 years. A decade earlier in Bologna, a group of young women founded the feminist network Sexyshock as a reaction to the sexist treatment of women by the Italian media. In 2009, the year Berlusconi’s wife, Veronica Lario, filed for divorce, three female academics – and 15,000 signatories – petitioned the wives of G8 leaders to boycott a summit with Berlusconi, over his behaviour toward women.

The rise of women in Italy