JessicaBlack

In a book written by Anna Maria Torriglia called “Broken Time, Fragmented Space: A Cultural Map for Postwar Italy” she talks about how artists reacted to the new Italy; the Italy that was formed because of World War Two. There were conflicting feelings towards the new culture that they were thrown into; they felt a need to reject Italy’s historical past but at the same time there was a need to mourn the innocence of its lost time. The artists obligation to choose a side created some headed debates in published literary magazines following the war. Artists, of all kind, didn’t know how to react to the twist in culture. The image of the ‘mother figure’ started showing itself in the late forties to early fifties – this was a women who was strong, passionate, instinctual, and was much more than just a baby maker. This symbolized a possible change in Italians society. Women had been ‘untainted’ by the war so they were better candidates to reconstruct the country, compared to men. Yet, because of the fact that women can produce soldiers they were still seen as mothers instead of women – women guarantee the continuance of the species – but this should be used as a family gift instead of a stated obligation. Women writers then use that to their advantage for their writing and focus their novels on motherhood and relationships with their children. Women did not have a voice – she did not “own her language” – Women were stuck in this endless circle of invisibility. She was only significant when it came to her interaction with men, when she is mother of man or centered to his pleasures. Women were objects, put here for the constant male gaze with judging eyes. Women fought past that; they wrote and spoke. They used their language. They used their novels to get word to society that women are here, and we are more then just the ‘other’ of the male subject. Another way women were getting their image out there was through films. Cinema was very filtered so nothing too ambiguous was ever aired but they were on the screen. The topic was mostly working women – either sales girls or secretary’s – but this increased their image with freedom and getting out of the home. Women’s voices were emerging through culture communication – films and novels. (Torriglia, 2002)

An article was written to speak out about the gender imbalance, concentrating on women furniture designers that went to Milan between the years 1945 to 1970′s – this includes Gae Aulenti – this part of Italy wasn’t just a focus for furniture design but women’s movement as well. Women were extremely under acknowledged in post-war Italy; even more so in the Furniture Design Industries. Women used designing and architecture as a tool to learn more about their minority status and to help break the mold. The women in post war Italy that designed furniture learned many things about themselves and their femininity while they brought them self up in the workforce and separated themselves from the common working man.The work that these women did wasn’t being appreciated  – even though they were doing a majority of the renovation of Italy following WW2. (Rossi, 2009)