Women’s associations and the well-being of their members: From mutual support to full citizenship

Abstract

This study investigated the goals and achievements of women members of organizations active within the city and province of Naples in recent years to detect how they acted in their local context to promote community health and wellbeing. Therefore, 39 representatives from feminist-oriented associations were interviewed to depict the effectiveness of women’s activities and their social impact. The textual materials, obtained by their transcripts, were categorized according to the ecological well-being model. The interviews revealed that whilst the active involvement of women in associations served to empower their wellbeing at both individual and relational levels, their action had poor effects on the collective context to which they belonged. This research, therefore, offers some useful indications regarding the actions of women in active groups and the related individual wellbeing, but at the same time, highlighted their potential ineffectiveness in having a transformative role at the collective community level.

Keywords:

• Community health
• ecological model
• empowerment
• gender
• power asymmetry
• wellbeing

Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Luisa Festa in her role as Gender Equality Councilor (Consigliera di parità) of the Province of Naples and for her generous support in the creation of the present study.

They are also grateful to Anne Brodsky for her generosity with time spent reading a preliminary version of this article.

Notes

1 In the ‘70s, the artist Lina Mangiacapra (2002 †) founded the group “Le nemesiache” and the cooperative “Le tre ghinee”. A section was dedicated to her at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, DC.

2 Adda passà ‘a nuttata – literally “one has to get through the night”: a Neapolitan saying.