Woman, War and Resistence in Italy. An historiographical approach and a path of research

Abstract

This paper draws attention to a change in analysis of the issue Women and Resistance in
Italian historiography from the investigations started around 1975 to the most recent research
of the 1990s. It identifies the key of this transition as the inclusion of “war” as main event of
the years 1943-1945, so that it is possible to assert that nowadays the real argument is Women,
War, and Resistance.
The first section focuses on the use of moral sources in the 1970s, which are connected
to a broader political and cultural context, and specifically to the 1968 and feminist movements.              After a brief examination of new research on the fascist era and its relevance for the
history of women in the XXth century, the next part of the paper discusses the most recent
investigations. In the 1990s the issues of civil war, violence, and conflicting recollections
cause a ridefination of the methodological approach and also of the role and value of oral
sources.