Gender and women's studies in Italy: Looking back to look forward

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, women's studies research and theoretical confrontations became common both inside and outside Italian universities, producing a substantial cultural and scientific inheritance. However, the teaching of such content had to follow an accidental path deprived of any institutional visibility. Women's studies was forced to adapt itself to existing didactic structures, 'hidden' inside single courses and single disciplines, without being evident itself in the university. Only in the late 1990s did such studies become institutionally formalized. Nowadays, there is a rapid growth in women's studies in Italy, thanks particularly to the course, Women Politics and Institutions, created in 2004. In this Open forum, the authors try to suggest what future scenarios might look like, anticipating a not yet realized horizon.