The Italian Positivist Culture: From Anti-Feminism to Social Emancipation of Women

This research aims to analyse the vision of women within the Italian positivist culture, a vision certainly not homogeneous, which ended up seeing the contrast between two different perspectives. On the one hand—as evidenced in the essay of Anna Rossi-Doria, Antisemitismo e antifemminismo nella cultura positivistica (Anti-semitism and Anti-feminism in the Positivist Culture)—there were those who claimed, on the basis of alleged scientific doctrines, the natural female biological inferiority and, therefore, believed that the subordination of women, socially, economically and above all spiritually, was necessary. On the other hand, however, there were those who advocated equality between men and women, biologically, socially and economically: the work of the positivist Lodovico Frati, La donna moderna secondo i più recenti studi (The Modern Woman According to the Latest Studies), was inserted, for example, in this perspective. Although there are significant writings on the topic (see, e.g. Garin, E. (1962). La questione femminile. Firenze: Olschki (The Female Question); Soldani, S. (1989). L’educazione delle donne. In Scuole e modelli di vita femminile nell’Italia dell’Ottocento. Milano: FrancoAngeli (The Education of Women. In Schools and Models of Women’s Life in Italy in the Nineteenth Century), the originality of the research lies in the discussion of a topic not much investigated, especially in a comparative perspective, and, as a result, on the ability to focus the attention on secondary issues of the historiography on the Italian positivism. Not intended to be exhaustive, the analysis will aim to highlight the role that the two positivist perspectives gave to the woman in the Italy of the late nineteenth century.