by Maximiliano Crocamo
Eighty years after Italian women first voted in national elections, the University of Trieste hosted a conference on Tuesday examining the history of women’s suffrage and political participation from both global and local perspectives.
The event, organized by the university’s Center for Gender Studies and Department of Humanities, brought together historians, political scientists and legal scholars for a daylong discussion titled “Women’s Suffrage: A Transnational History of Actions for Rights and Democracy.”
Speakers explored the evolution of women’s voting rights across different regions, including the Arab world and postwar Italy, while also focusing on Trieste’s own history. Historian Tullia Catalan highlighted June 12, 1949, the first time women in Trieste were able to vote under the Allied Military Government — a date often overlooked in broader Italian narratives.
Afternoon discussions shifted to the challenges that followed suffrage, including political representation, leadership and civil rights. Scholars reflected on the legacy of Italy’s founding mothers, gender dynamics in political leadership and women’s roles in professional life and public institutions.
