Academic Women in the History of Social Sciences in Turin

The objective of this research is to inquire into the female academic entrance into the University of Turin in the fields of Social Sciences. The law Faculty was the oldest one and initially the teaching on economics and of social sciences took place inside it. Little by little in the '900 both women entered the academia and the economic studies and later the political sciences studies became separate Faculties. We first analyzed the evolution of the faculties using the historical archive of the university in three different periods 1948-49, 1969-70 and 1983-84 which shows a rapid and steady increase in the female academic composition. Then we analysed the character and the academic contribution of the first three female professors: Danila Della Casa Cremona, Germana Conti Muttini e Maria Ada Benedetto. Danila Dellacasa Cremona e Germana Conti Muttini got their degrees at the Faculty of Economic of the University of Turin in the '30s. They were both professors at the same University but in different majors and they both were involved in volunteer social activities. The first was a pure economist and member of the Laboratory of Economics built by Cognetti de Martiis, the second was a Statistician but she acquired such a reputation inside the faculty that she was the first women elected Dean. Maria Ada Benedetto - was a through intellectual, she holds four degrees (Humanities, Law, Political Sciences and Philosophy) - and was the first female full law professor at the Law School (1976 History of the Italian Law). She was the director of the Patetta Library which she organized in a scientific way and which animatedher numerous publications.