Political and social participation of Italian women in the European context

Abstract

Politics is a field in which the female presence is still very scarce; however, women having attended political positions, as head of governments, have left their marks as to be nicknamed iron ladies. The relationship of women with politics continues to be discussed and is increasingly addressed as a democracy rather than women problem. Although the Italian women have acquired political rights in the last century, they have not been able to participate to a large extent in representative political institutions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the reasons for this phenomenon, and whether it is linked to representation crisis and socio-cultural factors. It is a question of raising public awareness on this issue, and of changing a political culture which even today considers man to be the legitimate protagonist of the State management.