Donne in armi: immagini e rappresentazioni nell’Italia del 1848-49

Women in Arms: Images and Representations in Italy, 1848-49
This article examines the women who claimed their citizenship right to carry (or demanded to carry) arms in the battles or barricades of the 1848-49 Italian revolutions. This subject is analyzed by using prints and caricatures from the time and comparing them to those of the French Revolution and the Jacobin Republics in Italy. The article explains how armed citizenship, claimed by many women patriots, was linked with the proclamation of equality between female and male nature, with oath, virile femininity and transvestism. The women’s requests challenged gender roles and destabilized the balances of power and the relationship between the sexes. Many men reacted by portraying these requests as ridiculous and used sexual parody to condemn them, showing femininity to be incompatible with a virtuous public sphere.