On the Insensitivity of Women: Science and the Woman Question in Liberal Italy, 1890-1910

Gibson, Mary

doi:10.1353/jowh.2010.0100

Cited by 102 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…From the time of unification, Italian women were excluded from political participation, despite several measures that gradually broadened voting rights for men. In the late 19th century, the slow but steady process of industrialisation and urbanisation was accompanied by social advances, prompting changes in women’s roles that translated into pressures from the civil society (Gibson, 1990). Women’s movements consolidated into organisations promoting equal rights in education, work and politics and questioned some constraints imposed on women’s rights.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some attempts to grant women voting rights in 1912 were put off sine die . In the face of the establishment of female organisations, the scientific community reacted with a series of studies that aimed to prove the psycho-physical inferiority of women with respect to men (Gibson, 1990). Pseudo-scientific evidence was used as the justification for female discrimination in this period.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring female discrimination through language: a novel indicator and its effect on production efficiency in Italy

Bevilacqua

Cerciello

2023

IJM

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PurposeWhile the economic literature mostly tackled discrimination looking at labour costs, this work focuses on its relation to labour productivity, arguing that discrimination may worsen the performance of female employees. In this view, it represents a source of allocative inefficiency, which contributes to reducing output.Design/methodology/approachFemale discrimination is both a social and an economic problem. In social terms, consolidated gender stereotypes impose constraints on women’s behaviour, worsening their overall well-being. In economic terms, women face generally worse labour market conditions. Using long-run Italian data spanning from 1861 to 2009, the authors propose a novel measure of female discrimination based on the observed frequency of discriminating epithets. Following social capital theory, the authors distinguish between structural and voluntary discrimination, and use Data Envelopment Analysis for time series data to assess the extent of inefficiency that each component of discrimination induces in the production process.FindingsThe results draw the trajectory of female discrimination in Italy and provide evidence in favour of the idea that female discrimination reduces productive efficiency. In particular, the structural component of female discrimination, although less sizeable than the voluntary component, plays a major role, especially in recent years, where more stringent beauty standards fuel looks-based discrimination.Originality/value The contribution of this work is twofold. First, based on contributions from social sciences different from economics, it proposes a novel theoretical framework that explores the effect of discriminatory language on labour productivity. Second, it introduces a novel and direct measure of female discrimination at the country level, based on the bidirectional link between language and culture. The indicator is easily understood by policymakers and may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-discrimination policies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring female discrimination through language: a novel indicator and its effect on production efficiency in Italy

Bevilacqua

Cerciello

2023

IJM

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“…The gendered representation of the two races, the masculine Aryans and the feminine Mediterraneans, acquired greater relevance within the Lombrosian school, since this school considered women as physiologically, intellectually and morally inferior (Gibson, 1990). Niceforohimself an opponent of political rights for women (ibid.…”

Section: A Historical Overview Of the Geography Of Masculinity In Italymentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculinity and Secessionism in Italy: An Assessment

Huysseune

2000

Nations and Nationalism

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The masculinist rhetoric of the northern Italian separatist party, the Lega Nord, is an example of nationalist status affirmation. The stereotyped contrast between effeminate southerners and masculine northerners developed at the end of last century is used to affirm the superiority of the masculine North. The Lega's rhetoric parallels mainstream concerns on Italy's international status, and proposals for reforms to make Italy more 'masculine' and European. The use of a gendered language for the affirmation of national status reveals a belief in a normative hierarchy of nations, but also introduces a tension between a 'masculinist' status affirmation and a model of modernity which includes the emancipation of women as one of its principles.

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“…In 1890 he moved to the law faculty at Pisa, a position he lost after he entered the Socialist Party in 1893. 28 Lombrosian racial science did not go uncontested. He rose through the socialist ranks, seizing the editorship of the party's newspaper Avanti in 1903.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Craniums, Criminals, and the ‘Cursed Race': Italian Anthropology in American Racial Thought, 1861–1924

D'Agostino

2002

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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George Lipsitz, reflecting upon a growing body of American studies scholarship on whiteness, claims we now have a better understanding of "how people who left Europe as Calabrians and Bohemians became something called 'whites' when they got to America." As a summary of whiteness studies the statement is accurate. The verb "to become" in Lipsitz's assertion emphasizes the importance of deconstructing race in order to analyze it as an ideological and historical process. The statement implies, however, that European society did not also employ unstable hierarchical racial taxonomies. Indeed, the notion that it was in the United States where people defined by a European region or nation of origin became a race, isolates American racial thought from its Euro-American matrix. 1 An ascription such as "Calabrian," for example, has been racially charged for centuries (and remains so). Medieval and early modern commentators considered the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and its Neapolitan capital a "paradise inhabited by devils." Counter-Reformation missionaries considered Calabria "our Indies" populated by savages readily compared to animals, on the same inferior level of civilization as the Amerindians of Brazil. Travelers to Calabria during the Enlightenment attributed a unique melancholia to the population. Nineteenth-century science racialized these deeply rooted stereotypes. Calabria became a land of atavistic criminals who had prematurely disembarked from the train of evolution. 2 Whiteness studies have not confronted transnational and comparative history. In the hands of African Americanists, race has been conceptualized within transnational contexts, and slavery linked to the rise of a world system of cap-319

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On the Insensitivity of Women: Science and the Woman Question in Liberal Italy, 1890-1910

Cited by 102 publications

References 13 publications

Measuring female discrimination through language: a novel indicator and its effect on production efficiency in Italy

Measuring female discrimination through language: a novel indicator and its effect on production efficiency in Italy

Masculinity and Secessionism in Italy: An Assessment

Craniums, Criminals, and the ‘Cursed Race': Italian Anthropology in American Racial Thought, 1861–1924

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