Gender and geography in Italy

Abstract

This article attempts to provide a picture of Italian gender geography in order to better understand the discipline’s key achievements and development. Rooted in a lively tradition of feminism stretching back to the 1970s, Italian gender geography has faced cultural and academic resistance while achieving a number of milestones. There is still much to be done if the multifaceted theme of gender is to be fully engaged by Italian geography. However, seminars, national and international congresses on gender geography themes, and the dialectic encounter with international gender geography have stimulated the domestic debate since the new millenium. Italian gender geographic voices may be self-perceived as limited and isolated but are continuously engaged in the struggle to overcome the many structural and cultural constraints imposed by Italian society and academia. This article tries to review Italian gender geography’s history to look forward and encourage new agendas and projects within a larger academic audience.

Keywords:

• feminism
• geography
• gender
• Italy
• LGBT

Acknowledgements

While the full article is the result of a joint piece of work, Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg developed sections 1 and 2 and Valeria Pecorelli wrote section 3 and 4. The conclusive part was created by both the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg

Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg is Professor of Geography at the ‘Riccardo Massa’ Department of Human Sciences and Education at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. Her research interests include gender geography, cultural geography, island studies, and the history of geographical thought. She is Chair of the IGU Commission on the History of Geography and member of the Editorial Board of ACME.

Valeria Pecorelli

Valeria Pecorelli was awarded a Ph.D. in Geography at Loughborough University, UK, in 2012. Her research and lecturing interests focus on developing critical theoretical and methodological approaches to political, gender and cultural geography. She is the coordinator of communication for the Italian gender geography group-AGEI.