Land rebel aunts of ’68 claimed their rights, but in political struggles they were relegated to mimeograph angels. Mothers, entering the world of work en masse, they had laboriously conquered some summits, but in the institutions just grazed the power, detained to vice-something. But they, the under 50 generation, it was written that they would even the last step was climbed over and the crystal ceiling was shattered. What was the use of so much studying, learning, and then learning again, trying, trying again, if not to finally be number one?
Danda Santini director of “iO Donna” (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert)
In the rest of the world, where women had long since reached the top, the first resignations were already registered: Jacinta Ardern, New Zealand prime minister, due to fatigue, Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish prime minister, for running out of time, and someone had thought That was a clear sign of female renunciation of too hard struggles.
Meloni and Schlein, an Italian record
And right there, Italy, always bringing up the rear of Europe for gender policies, surprisingly – or maybe not – in the space of a year, he defeats everyone. Italian style, inserting a shotgun when you no longer believed in it, the first woman to head the government, Giorgia Meloni, last October, first woman leader of the opposition, now Elly Schlein.
“I was the underdog”, the underdog, Meloni recalls. “Again they didn’t see us coming,” Schlein quotes. Yet women have been raising their hands for some time, on all frontsthe feminine “woman and mother” on the right, the feminist “non-mother woman who loves another woman” on the left. Politics didn’t want to see them, but voters and electricians noticed and they chose two young women. Not because women, until yesterday a limit in politics (“no one will vote for a woman”), nor by virtue of some women’s quotas, but because I earned that place by deserving it.
Women in politics, the power of conviction
The novelty is that they were convincing. Passionatebecause they have lived in militant politics since they were small. Courageous, ready to run alone founding a party or a list without having to ask permission from male comrades. Stay strong: Melons with Brothers of Italy started from 3 percent in 2002, Schlein with the “Brave” list did not exceed 4 percent in 2019. Get ready: Never underestimate nerds. And above all: clear, concrete, coherent.
I’m biased, of course, how could I not be on this occasion? But I keep my feet firmly on the ground: no one expects women to have superpowers. Simply, it is good that what has always been natural for men becomes normal, to aspire to power. And it is legitimate to hope that that normality, more balanced between genres, can restore some impetus and spark even to the debate of ideas. Putting politics back at the center as a service and passion and not just as a profession and co-optation. And this is a good sign: with the right arguments sleeping, depressed, bored consciences can be awakened. Maybe they had good reason to be.
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