Noin 1429, within the walls of the city of Orléans exhausted by the siegea 17-year-old peasant girl entered on horseback: she was holding a white banner and leading the French army against the English. Her name was Joan of Arc and, despite never having received a military education, changed the course of the Hundred Years’ War.
A vodcast about women in history
His story is one of the most famous in European history: it is an example of how, even in times when women were almost completely barred from public space, some managed to leave a profound mark on history.
The Maid of Orléans is one of the nine protagonists of the exclusive and unpublished vodcast project by I Woman dedicated to “Women in History”, the original and highly followed space of our magazine dedicated to the extraordinary lives of authors, politicians and scientists with the aim of promoting knowledge, awareness and female empowerment.
Every Friday a new vodcast
Starting from Friday 27 March and for the following nine Fridays – until 22 May – Nine video lessons dedicated to the women who changed history will be published on the main platforms and on our website.
Nilde Jotti is among the protagonists of the vodcast, Women in History© Publifoto/LaPresse
A story from two voices, an expert and a journalist, to highlight the important female contribution in the fields of culture, society and politics. The selection of the protagonists was the result of careful study.
We talk about Cleopatra in the vodcast of iO Donna, Women in History By Alexandre Cabanel (1823-89)
The names were chosen, in fact, by the editorial team together with the historians Beatrice Del Bo, expert in medieval economic history and professor at the University of Milan, and Laura Pepeprofessor of Institutions of Roman law and Greek law at La Statale in Milan. The journalist and historian Valeria Palumbo he took care of the format step by step, entrusting the story to a pool of historians.
Women in history: from Cleopatra to Nilde Jotti
Among the criteria followed for the choice, covering the entire span of history, starting from figures known to the general public. And talk about protagonists who not only changed costumes, but whose personal story illuminated the female condition of their time.
The program spans centuries and civilizations. From classical antiquity with Aspasia and Cleopatra, to the Middle Ages with Hildegard of Bingen and to the Renaissance with Lucrezia Borgiaup to modernity with figures such as Mary Wollstonecraft, pioneer of feminist thought (mother of Mary Shelley, the well-known author of Frankenstein), o the multifaceted and nonconformist Matilde Seraoamong the first great European journalists, the first Italian to have founded and directed a newspaper.
Lucrezia Borgia in the vodcast of iO Donna, Women in History© Leonard de Selva.
Each episode lasts 15 minutes
There is no shortage of representatives of our political history such as Nilde Iotti, first female president of the Chamber of Deputies, and key figures of the Risorgimento such as Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso.
Each episode, lasting fifteen minutes, follows a clear narrative structure: we start from the historical context to understand the world in which these women lived; we then move on to the biography, reconstructing the crucial moments of their lives; the theme of fame, positive or controversial, and their memory over time is addressed.
Finally, space is given to the legacy of these figures, that is, to how much they continue to inspire us today.
