Italian Racialized Women and Feminist Activism
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Italian racialized women and feminist activism Exploring discourses of white women in Italian feminist activism work Alice Contini Supervisor's name: Edyta Just Gender Studies, LiU Master’s Programme Gender Studies – Intersectionality and Change Master’s thesis 30 ECTS credits ISNR: LIU-TEMA G/GSIC2-A—20/002-SE 1 Abstract The starting point of this study is the common assumption that the Italian society is based on a patriarchal ideological system in which racism is often normalized. The binary distinction between women and men in Italian society has evolved into discussions and awareness raising on gender- based violence or violence against women. As intersectionality has become a central point in Italian contemporary feminism, this study uses the analysis of topics related to the historical creation of the idea of Italian-ness, migration and the influence of right-wing politics in current gender related issues as the basis of a feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. With this in mind, using intersectional theory, postcolonial feminism, and studies of whiteness, the study aims at exploring as to which extent the discourses of three white Italian women, who identify as feminist activists, influence the presence of racialized Italian women in their work. This study should create academic data and contribute to a research that is extremely limited on these topics. Key words Italy, feminist activism, women, intersectional feminism, racialized people, citizenship, color- blindness, race, whiteness, gender-based violence, postcolonial feminism, colonialism, right-wing politics 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who stood behind me and supported me during the research process of this thesis. It has been a long process and I would not have been able to do it without you. Thanks to those who took time to put me in contact with the Interviewees. And a special thank you to the three women who took time to answer all my questions and were willing to contribute to this important study. I hope it allows us to open a discussion on the findings. Thanks to Rebecca and Federico for taking time and giving me a much-needed feedback as well as helping me to get out of writer’s block. I also want to thank those friends who have helped me look at certain things from a new perspective. Anna and Johanna, thank you for having been there through the whole process. Thanks to my family, specifically my parents who always support me in going forward and achieving what is best to me. A special thanks to my cousin Anna who has been a great support with the interviews. Last but not least, thank you Edyta for being patient with postponing this thesis by taking a year of time to finish it and for taking time to read and discuss this thesis with me. 3 Table of Content 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 THE ETHICS QUESTIONS AND REFLECTIONS ............................................................................................................ 9 2. CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................................................... 11 2.1 THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN FEMINISM .................................................................................................................. 11 2.2 CONTEXTUALIZING CURRENT ITALIAN POLITICS (2018-2020) ................................................................................ 18 2.3 SITUATING THE RESEARCH IN LITERATURE AND ACADEMIA ..................................................................................... 19 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................ 29 3.1 WORKING WITH QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS AS A WAY TO GATHER DATA ........................... 29 4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................................................... 34 4.1 INTERSECTIONALITY ....................................................................................................................................... 34 4.2 POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM .............................................................................................................................. 35 4.3 CONTEXTUALIZING WHITENESS ........................................................................................................................ 40 5. ANALYTICAL DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................... 43 5.1 THE FEMALE SEX AS A PREREQUISITE OF BEING FEMINIST (?) .................................................................................. 44 5.2 AWARENESS IS JUST A STARTING POINT: HOW RACIALIZED ITALIANS ARE INCLUDED IN FEMINIST ACTIVISM ....................... 52 6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 62 6.1 HOW WHITE ENVIRONMENTS LIMIT WHITE WOMEN’S AWARENESS .......................................................................... 62 6.2 RACIALIZED ITALIAN WOMEN VS. MIGRANT WOMEN IN ITALY ................................................................................. 64 6.3 WAY FORWARD ............................................................................................................................................ 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................... 68 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................................................... 74 APPENDIX 1 – THESIS PARTICIPATION CONSENT ................................................................................................................ 74 APPENDIX 2 – INTERVIEW OUTLINE ................................................................................................................................ 78 4 1. Introduction This thesis is a contribution to feminists’ efforts in the fight against misogyny and racism, hence, patriarchy in Italy as well as the right-wing fascists’ agenda that is being pushed at a national political level. Living abroad for most of the past 12 years has made me feel as though I have lost touch with what the reality of social struggles in Italy are. At the same time, throughout my years abroad I have surrounded myself with Italians living abroad, working in a similarly open-minded field as I do (international development). Hence, we share a similar perspective of our home country. This lack of direct daily contact with Italy has led me to believe that I have a distorted vision of what Italy and current Italian feminism is. Contributing to research on Italian feminism has been challenging as it represents not only an academic journey, but also a personal one where I came to deal with issues important to me personally. I start with the common assumption that the Italian society is based on a patriarchal ideological system in which racism is often normalized. Growing up in Italy and working with Italian organizations once I moved abroad, I have and continue to experience sexism first-hand due to the misogynist mentality that is intrinsically present in the Italian society, both in my professional and private life. As Italian women we are often even unaware of the discrimination we experience. It is a long process for many of us to realize to what extent this affects us. As a way of discovering what Italian feminist women now think and do to bring change, I decided to explore different activists’ voices and share their perspective on specific topics such as their attitude towards intersectionality, Italian racialized women’s issues and the societal change they want to see in Italy. I have felt that these topics were under-researched. I found feminist critical discourse analysis (feminist CDA) as the most appropriate tool using intersectionality and a feminist postcolonial lens as well as Critical Studies of Whiteness useful to analyze my findings. This study should create academic data and contribute to a research that is extremely limited on these topics. Historically, many Italian feminists have fought primarily for the improvement of white women’s rights in the country. However, the demographic change happening in the past decades with the arrival of many migrants from all over the world has seen, from my perspective, the need to shift the focus not only on the discrimination of women per se in different spheres in Italian society, but 5 also on the inclusion of the most vulnerable groups of women: racialized Italian1 and migrant women2. There have been two notable private conversations I had with people in my personal circle that awoken my need to understand Italian feminism and the aspect of race within them better and, therefore, explore this topic form an academic perspective. During one of my last Christmases, I was sitting at the table while my family was exchanging gifts. Two of my aunts were discussing the book one has gifted the other. My first reaction was a big smile and I felt like sharing that it is a well appreciated book by a wide range of feminists. What I was not expecting was that the word feminist would have created a huge discussion