Gendering democracy: The new wave of feminist mobilization in Italy (2010-2021)

In the period 2010-2021, feminist networks and campaigns have proliferated in Italy. At the beginning of the decade, there was already a great variety of collectives, groups and associations that ranged from queer approaches to the fight against gender- based violence. These groups have been strongly involved in the resistance against anti-gender/anti-feminist movements that has been highly supported by right-wing parties. From 2016 onwards, the new wave of the transnational feminist movements focused on gender-based violence conceived as a structural dimension of contemporary capitalist and neoliberal society. Starting in Argentina, the campaign soon reached Italy, where it triggered a huge mobilization at the national and local level lead by the new organization named after the Argentinian one, Non Una Di Meno - NUDM (Not One Less). Academic and activist circles turned then their attention to new issues emerging from the feminist movements. First of all, gender-based violence was seen as a lens to understand social structures, gender socialization and the shape of state institutions. Second, there was a concern with the material dimension of feminist claims, for instance with regard to the labour conditions of women, lesbian, trans and non-binary people; the pauperization and precarization of life; increasing gender inequality; as well as the retrenchment of the welfare system and public services. Third, there was a focus on health and reproductive rights, and against the increasing attacks on abortion and women’s freedom over their body. Fourth, claims for LGBTQ+ rights also addressed the parliamentary debate on the so-called DDL Zan, a proposed law on the criminalisation of homophobia and transphobia and hate crimes, which was never approved, not even under a center-left coalitional government. Finally, academic and activist circles turned their attention to migration, both because of gendered migration flows and because of the growth of a “second generation” of citizens with a migrant background. The movement has been highly innovative also with regard to repertoire of action (with the development of the feminist strike), of composition (as an inter-generational movement), and of organization models.