Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GENI (Gender, emotions and national identities: a new perspective on the abortion debates in Italy (1971-1981).)
Reporting period: 2019-09-16 to 2021-09-15
My project focuses on a very important issue in our society: the decriminalization of abortion in Europe. In order to stress the correlations between abortion and gender equality, women's reproductive rights and sexual self-determination, my research analyzes the Italian case and the public debate around law 194 (which decriminalized abortion in Italy in 1978). The project identifies second-wave feminist groups and women's associations as crucial actors in the struggle for the decriminalization of abortion in 1970s Italy, reconstructing their demands and actions.
GENI’s host institution has been Université Libre de Bruxelles. It has been supervised by professor Cécile Vanderpelen and implemented by Dr. Azzurra Tafuro – a specialist of women’s history in 19th- and 20th-century Europe. The project has been carried out in two of the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic: Italy (where archives and libraries essential for the research are located) and Belgium (the country of my Host Institution). As a consequence, the main challenge was to deal with the limitations imposed on freedom of movement and research by containment measures. In particular, Italian archives and libraries were closed from March 2020 until May/June 2020. Afterwards, in order to regulate and limit access to them the Italian government introduced very strict measures, making reservations compulsory and reducing both the opening hours and the number of documents one can request. In Italy, these measures are (at least partially) still in force today. The project has therefore evolved to deal with these difficulties, without ever losing sight of the main objective: analyzing the public debate around Law No. 194, stressing the role of second-wave feminist groups and women’s associations and reconstructing their demands and actions.
GENI’s host institution has been Université Libre de Bruxelles. It has been supervised by professor Cécile Vanderpelen and implemented by Dr. Azzurra Tafuro – a specialist of women’s history in 19th- and 20th-century Europe. The project has been carried out in two of the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic: Italy (where archives and libraries essential for the research are located) and Belgium (the country of my Host Institution). As a consequence, the main challenge was to deal with the limitations imposed on freedom of movement and research by containment measures. In particular, Italian archives and libraries were closed from March 2020 until May/June 2020. Afterwards, in order to regulate and limit access to them the Italian government introduced very strict measures, making reservations compulsory and reducing both the opening hours and the number of documents one can request. In Italy, these measures are (at least partially) still in force today. The project has therefore evolved to deal with these difficulties, without ever losing sight of the main objective: analyzing the public debate around Law No. 194, stressing the role of second-wave feminist groups and women’s associations and reconstructing their demands and actions.
During the first phase of the fellowship, my project progressed as planned. From March 2020 onwards, however, I had to face serious problems due to the lockdowns in Belgium and Italy and the closure of many archives and libraries. Being unable to carry out the planned fieldwork, I rearranged the workplan and adapted my project. In order to do this, I enhanced my knowledge of the scientific literature on the history of abortion, reproductive rights and feminist movements in Europe; I improved my digital skills and knowledge of various on-line platforms providing digitalized sources (such as Gallica, Internet Archive, British Newspaper Archive, etc.); I identified archives and libraries in Italy that could send me digital reproductions of the sources I needed. Obviously, I had to reschedule the fieldwork and, in some cases, find new archives to replace those that were unavailable due to lockdowns or containment measures.
It was a very hard and complicated task that required a lot of time and energy. However, this work allowed me to shed light on two topics hitherto neglected by historians:
1) the cultural and political analysis of the debate around Law No. 194. I focused especially on the stereotypic representation of abortion as a tragedy for women. By analyzing the roots and the spread of this stereotype in the pro-choice movement, I identified both its main promoter (the Union of Italian Women) and the gender identities it conveyed: the woman who aborts as a victim and the man as an “irresponsible seducer”. Furthermore, I delineated the construction of a specific narrative, identified its political and emotional use in the debate for the purpose of gaining consensus around the theme of abortion and its decriminalization.
2) the Women's health movement in Italy. The research has allowed me to reconstruct the biographical profiles of the most prominent militants (often physicians or scientist like Simonetta Tosi), the transnational connections of the movements (especially with French and American groups) and the practices (e.g. the organization of travels in order to allow Italian women to have a safe abortion in a country where it was decriminalized).
In other words, the work carried out so far makes it possible to present for the very first-time women's health movement as a crucial actor in second-wave Italian feminism as well as in the public debate around Law No. 194.
The Covid-19 emergency and the related containment measures have had a strong impact on the dissemination and communication of the results of my research. Nevertheless, I managed to present and discuss them on three occasions:
1) during the on-line international conference ‘My Choice - Networks and practices in the history of abortion in Europe (20th-21st century)’ held on the 19 April 2021. The conference was promoted and organized by myself with the collaboration of Maison des Sciences Humaines and my research team (STRIGES), as established in my project (see: https://msh.ulb.ac.be/en/agenda/colloque-my-choice-networks-and-practices-in-the-history-of-abortion-in-europe-20th-21st-century(opens in new window))
2) during the workshop organized by STRIGES
3) in the lecture delivered as part of the course Prof. Cécile Vanderpelen held at the Université Libre de Bruxelles on Enjeux contemporains du religieux.
Furthermore, in 2019 I published an essay anticipating the research developed with GENI: Un équilibre difficile. Les catholiques italiennes et l'opposition à l'avortement, in B. Dumons (ed.), Femmes et catholicisme en Europe (1960-1970), Peter Lang, 2020, p. 29-50. In 2021 I published a book review (see: https://journals.openedition.org/clio/18001(opens in new window)) and an article in open access (in English and French) on Sin, Crime, Law: A History of Abortion in Europe (see: https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/gender-and-europe/demographic-transition-sexual-revolutions/sin-crime-law-a-history-abortion-in-europe(opens in new window)).
In the autumn of the same year, I was invited to submit an article (before May 2022) on the Women’s health movement in Italy for a special issue of an Italian peer-reviewed journal; at the moment I’m working with Dr. Bibia Pavard – an expert on the decriminalization of abortion in 20th-century France – in another article we are planning to submit to an international peer-reviewed journal before summer 2022. Finally, in the last months I have started to write a monograph (in Italian) which I hope to publish by 2023.
It was a very hard and complicated task that required a lot of time and energy. However, this work allowed me to shed light on two topics hitherto neglected by historians:
1) the cultural and political analysis of the debate around Law No. 194. I focused especially on the stereotypic representation of abortion as a tragedy for women. By analyzing the roots and the spread of this stereotype in the pro-choice movement, I identified both its main promoter (the Union of Italian Women) and the gender identities it conveyed: the woman who aborts as a victim and the man as an “irresponsible seducer”. Furthermore, I delineated the construction of a specific narrative, identified its political and emotional use in the debate for the purpose of gaining consensus around the theme of abortion and its decriminalization.
2) the Women's health movement in Italy. The research has allowed me to reconstruct the biographical profiles of the most prominent militants (often physicians or scientist like Simonetta Tosi), the transnational connections of the movements (especially with French and American groups) and the practices (e.g. the organization of travels in order to allow Italian women to have a safe abortion in a country where it was decriminalized).
In other words, the work carried out so far makes it possible to present for the very first-time women's health movement as a crucial actor in second-wave Italian feminism as well as in the public debate around Law No. 194.
The Covid-19 emergency and the related containment measures have had a strong impact on the dissemination and communication of the results of my research. Nevertheless, I managed to present and discuss them on three occasions:
1) during the on-line international conference ‘My Choice - Networks and practices in the history of abortion in Europe (20th-21st century)’ held on the 19 April 2021. The conference was promoted and organized by myself with the collaboration of Maison des Sciences Humaines and my research team (STRIGES), as established in my project (see: https://msh.ulb.ac.be/en/agenda/colloque-my-choice-networks-and-practices-in-the-history-of-abortion-in-europe-20th-21st-century(opens in new window))
2) during the workshop organized by STRIGES
3) in the lecture delivered as part of the course Prof. Cécile Vanderpelen held at the Université Libre de Bruxelles on Enjeux contemporains du religieux.
Furthermore, in 2019 I published an essay anticipating the research developed with GENI: Un équilibre difficile. Les catholiques italiennes et l'opposition à l'avortement, in B. Dumons (ed.), Femmes et catholicisme en Europe (1960-1970), Peter Lang, 2020, p. 29-50. In 2021 I published a book review (see: https://journals.openedition.org/clio/18001(opens in new window)) and an article in open access (in English and French) on Sin, Crime, Law: A History of Abortion in Europe (see: https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/gender-and-europe/demographic-transition-sexual-revolutions/sin-crime-law-a-history-abortion-in-europe(opens in new window)).
In the autumn of the same year, I was invited to submit an article (before May 2022) on the Women’s health movement in Italy for a special issue of an Italian peer-reviewed journal; at the moment I’m working with Dr. Bibia Pavard – an expert on the decriminalization of abortion in 20th-century France – in another article we are planning to submit to an international peer-reviewed journal before summer 2022. Finally, in the last months I have started to write a monograph (in Italian) which I hope to publish by 2023.
Academic works on the decriminalization process in Italy are a good starting point for the analysis of Law No. 194. Nonetheless, it neglects a number of crucial elements. My research introduces a radically new approach to the study of Law No. 194 and wants to shed new light on the Italian case presenting it as a crucial part of the European decriminalization process focuses on 3 topics hitherto neglected by historians: 1) the analysis of the cultural and gender dimension of the public debate 2) the reconstruction of the role played by feminist groups and especially Women’s health movement 3) the insertion of the Italian case in the European framework.