L’ondata di mezzo: movimenti delle donne, femminismi e guerra fredda

The middle wave: women’s movements, feminisms and the Cold War
The essay deals with transnational historiographical debates on women’s movements and feminist waves in the 20th century, looking in particular at the theme of women’s activism during the Cold War era in the United States and Europe. It discusses the case of Italy, on the basis of recent scholarly works that investigate women’s activism in post-war times (The Lost Wave. Women and Democracy in Postwar Italy by Molly Tambor, Oxford U.P., 2014, and Italian Women and International Cold War Politics, 1944-1968 by Wendy Pojmann, Fordham U.P., 2013). The essay challenges the idea that the Cold War was a time devoid of women’s political activism. Instead, it argues that the Cold war «middle-wave» of women’s activism deserves to be included in contemporary feminist genealogies, in order to do justice to different activist generations across time and space.

Parole chiave: Attivismo femminile; Femminismo; Guerra fredda; Generazioni

Keywords: women’s activism, feminism, Cold War, generations