Focus on influential Italian female figures in history, art and sport
Being a women, at many moments in history, meant having to conquer space first and
then the recognition. In the arts, research, entertainment and sport, many Italian
they left a mark on their time without immediately entering the dominant narrative.
Italian Traditions tells them as part of the Italian heritage: not lateral figures, but
protagonists of works, discoveries and firsts that continue to define the identity of the country.
For centuries, for female artists the first obstacle was not just painting, but being recognized
as authors. Sofonisba Anguissola succeeded in the sixteenth century: from Cremona she arrived at the court of
Philip II of Spain, establishing himself among the most appreciated portrait painters of his time. In his
self-portraits and in works such as The Chess Game brought to canvas a family intimacy rare for
the era.
Artemisia Gentileschi, trained in Caravaggio’s Rome, was the first woman
admitted to the Academy of Drawing Arts in Florence and built an independent career between
the main courts and artistic cities of the time, from Florence to Naples and up to London. In canvases as
Judith beheading Holofernes and Susanna and the elders, female figures are not presences
decorative, but subjects of the action.
Writing offered another ground for conquest. Grazia Deledda brought Sardinia to the scene
European with Elias Portolu, Ashes and Reeds in the Wind, up to the 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature.
In his novels the island is not simple folklore, but a world marked by family ties,
social codes and internal conflicts. Elsa Morante won the Strega Prize with L’isola di Arturo and
made La Storia one of the most discussed novels of the post-war period. Alda Merini transformed wounds
personal and internment in an unmistakable poetic voice, from The Holy Land to Empty
of love. Matilde Serao, with the investigation The Belly of Naples, told the story of the royal city, far away
from the postcard; he co-founded Il Mattino and then founded and directed Il Giorno, starring in
almost entirely male journalism.
Change also came from classrooms, laboratories and observatories. Maria Montessori,
among the first female doctors in Italy, in 1907 she opened the Children’s House in the Roman district of
San Lorenzo and devised an educational method destined to spread throughout the world. His contribution
shifted the focus from the authority of the teacher to the environment, materials and conditions
of learning. Rita Levi-Montalcini continued to do research during the persecutions
racial, working in a home laboratory; the discovery of the Nerve Growth Factor, together
to Stanley Cohen, earned her the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1986 and opened new perspectives in
study of the nervous system.
Margherita Hack, the first woman to direct the Trieste Astronomical Observatory, helped bring it to the international stage and made astrophysics more
accessible through books and dissemination.
Between stage, cinema and music, some of Italy’s best-known faces can be recognised in the
world. Eleonora Duse was among the most famous actresses between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: she acted in Europe
and in the United States and in 1923 she became the first woman on the cover of Time. Anna Magnani
brought an unconventional presence to cinema: Rome, an open city, linked it to neorealism,
Bellissima and Mamma Roma confirmed her dramatic strength, The tattooed rose earned her in
1956 the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Mina marked a turning point in Italian song
for vocal and interpretative quality, from Tintarella di luna to Se telefonando, up to the duet with
Lucio Battisti at Teatro 10. Raffaella Carrà combined television, music and popular customs: from
Canzonissima a Pronto, Raffaella?, songs like A far l’amore comincia tu and Fiesta avven
large diffusion abroad, especially in Spain and Latin America.
Nello sport, l’affermazione delle donne è passata attraverso numeri difficili da ignorare.
Alfonsina Strada corse il Giro d’Italia del 1924, unica donna ad aver partecipato a quella
competizione, dopo aver già gareggiato al Giro di Lombardia. Ondina Valla, a Berlino 1936,
vinse gli 80 metri ostacoli e divenne la prima donna italiana a conquistare un oro olimpico.
Novella Calligaris aprì una nuova stagione per il nuoto italiano con tre medaglie a Monaco
1972 e un record mondiale negli 800 stile libero nel 1973. Sara Simeoni portò il salto in alto ai
vertici: record mondiale con 2,01 metri nel 1978, oro olimpico a Mosca 1980 e due argenti, a
Montréal 1976 e Los Angeles 1984.
Da quelle prime rotture è nata una continuità più visibile. Valentina Vezzali ha reso il fioretto
una delle grandi storie vincenti dell’Italia olimpica: nove medaglie ai Giochi, sei ori, sedici titoli
mondiali e tredici europei. Federica Pellegrini ha dato al nuoto italiano una centralità nuova:
oro nei 200 stile libero a Pechino 2008 con record del mondo, otto podi mondiali consecutivi
nella stessa distanza e cinque finali olimpiche nei 200 stile libero. Bebe Vio ha portato il
fioretto paralimpico al centro dell’attenzione nazionale, con gli ori individuali a Rio 2016 e
Tokyo 2020, il bronzo a Parigi 2024 e un ruolo pubblico che ha ampliato il racconto dello sport
paralimpico.
Il filo che unisce queste storie non è soltanto il talento, ma la capacità di trasformare una
conquista personale in una possibilità aperta anche ad altre donne. Dipingere, scrivere, fare
ricerca, salire su un palcoscenico o competere ai massimi livelli non furono, per molte di loro,
scelte scontate: significò entrare in luoghi in cui la presenza femminile era rara, osservata,
spesso messa in discussione. Per questo il loro lascito non si misura solo nei loro successi,
ma nel modo in cui hanno reso più ampio l’orizzonte per le generazioni successive.