Course description
This course uses an anthropological lens to explore how gender is culturally constructed and renegotiated across different life stages in Italy. The course examines how traditional notions of femininity and masculinity, the family, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age have evolved due to socio-economic shifts, political changes, and broader global influences. Through readings and discussions of ethnographic case studies, students will learn to analyze how intersecting factors like regional identity, class, and religion shape the lived experiences of Italians throughout their lives. The course uses an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating scholarly articles, films, and ethnographic studies.

Course format: Seminar-style with lectures, guest speakers, films, and experiential learning activities.

Learning objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
• Outline major social and cultural changes in Italy since World War II that have influenced gender roles.
• Analyze how gender is shaped by socio-cultural, political, and economic factors across different life stages, from childhood to old age.
• Interpret key anthropological concepts such as kinship, gender performance, and social reproduction within the Italian context.
• Critically assess ethnographic texts and other media (films, documentaries) to understand the diversity of Italian gender attitudes.
• Apply an intersectional perspective to analyze how gender interacts with class, regional identity, and migration in Italy.

Course evaluation
• Class participation (10%) and reparation of class discussion questions for one weekly topic (10% Active engagement in seminar discussions is crucial for exploring course topics.
• Ethnographic journal (25%): Students will keep a weekly journal reflecting on course readings and media, connecting themes to observations of gender dynamics in everyday life or media representations.
• A short paper (approx. 5 pp.) on a life cycle ritual of your choice (25%): for example, baptism, weddings, first communion, confirmation, diciottesimo (18th birthday), funerals. Describe traditional rituals and their recent transformations (e.g., the trend away from burials and toward cremation).
• Final project (approx. 8 pp.): A research-based final project on a specific topic related to gender and the life cycle in Italy (30%). This can take the form of a traditional research paper or a creative/ethnographic project (e.g., a mini-documentary, a photographic essay).

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Week 1: Gender and the Family in Contemporary Italian Culture and Society through the lens of anthropology
• Heywood, Paolo (ed.). 2025. “Introduction.” New Anthropologies of Italy: Politics, History and Culture. Berghahn Books.
• Ben-Yehoyada, N, H. Cabot and P. Silverstein. 2020. “Introduction.” The Mediterranean Redux: Remapping Mediterranean Anthropology.” History and Anthropology 31: 1-12.
• Filippucci, Paola. 1996. “Anthropological Perspectives on Culture. In D. Forgacs and R. Lumley, eds. Italian Cultural Studies: An Introduction. Oxford
U. Press, pp.52-72.
• Viazzo, P. 2017. “Anthropology and Ethnology in Italy: Historical Development, Current Orientations, and Problems of Recognition.” In A. Barrera Gonzales, et al. European Anthropologies. Oxford U. Press.

Week 2: Empty Cradles: Contraception, Very Low Fertility and the Demographic Crisis
Contraception; companionate marriage,
• Krause, E. 2004. A Crisis of Births: Population Politics and Family Making in Italy, Chapter 1, “Population Politics, Cultural Struggles” and Chapter 6, “Gendered Myths, Gendered Strife.” Wadsworth.
• Schneider, Jane. 1991. Sex and Respectability in an Age of Fertility Decline: A Sicilian Case Study. Social Science and Medicine 33(8): 885-895.
• Kara, Granzow. ‘De-Constructing 'Choice': The Social Imperative and Women's Use of the Birth Control Pill.” Culture, Sexuality & Choice 9(1):43-54.

Week 3: Making Families: Childbirth, Motherhood and Fatherhood
Spina, Elena. 2023. “The Several Faces of the Medicalization of Birth: Italy and its Peculiarities.” Frontiers in Sociology, pp. 1-13.
Hayes, Sharon. 1998. The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. Yale University Press, Chapter, 1 “Why Can’t a Mother Be More Like a Businessman?” and Chapter 5, “Intensive Mothering: Women’s Work on Behalf of the Sacred Child, pp. 97-130.
Lombardi, L., et al. 2015. “Reproductive technologies and “social infertility” in Italy: Gender policy and inequality.” In Venetia Kantsa, et al., eds. (In)Fertile Citizens: Anthropological and Legal Challenges of Assised Reproductive Technologies. INFERCIT, pp. 117-130.

Week 4: Women’s Work and Childcare
Sarti, R., 2010. “Who Cares for Me? Grandparents, Nannies and Babysitters Caring for Children in Contemporary Italy. Paedagogica Historica 46 (6): 789-902.
Parreñas, Rachel. 2000. “Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor.” Gender & Society 14(4): 560-580.
Ruspini, Elisabetta. 2025/ “Role and Perceptions of Women in Perceptions of Women in Contemporary Italy.” In Mammone, A, et al. The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Italy: History, Politics, Society. Routledge.
Buscemi, Francesco. "Television as a trattoria: Constructing the woman in the kitchen on Italian food shows" (2014). Examines media's role in reinforcing traditional gender roles.
Chain of Love: Ehtnographic on Filipina Childcare Workers in Italy:

Week 5: Gendered Socialization: Childhood and youth
Ruspini, E. 2012. Girls, Boys, Money: Economic Socialization, Gender and Generations in Italy. International Review of Sociology 22(3):
Formato, Federica. 2019. Gender, Discourse and Ideology in Italian. Springer.
Silva, R. et al. 2024. "Everything changes but nothing changes: gender stereotypes in the Italian population." Archives of Women’s Mental Health 27(4):1-9.
Mauriello, Marzia. 2022. An Anthropology of Gender Variance and Trans Experience in Naples: Beauty in Transit. Palgrave.

Week 6: Between Adolescent and Adulthood: Waithood in Italy
• Argentin, G. “New generation at a Crossroads: Decline or Change? Young People in Italy and Their Transformation Since the Nineties.” In Mammone, A, et al. The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Italy: History, Politics, Society. Routledge.
• Tintori, G and M. Colucci . “From manpower to brain drain? Emigration and the Italian state, between past and present.” The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Italy: History, Politics, Society. Routledge.
• Saraceno, Chiara. 2014. Being young in Italy: the paradoxes of a familistic society" (2014). European Journal of Social Equality 2(2)120-
• Ginsborg, Paul. 2001. “Families and Consumption.” In Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State 1980–2001. Palgrave. Pp.68-93.

Week 7: Women and Men at work and in the family. Discuss your research projects and applying anthropological methods
• Bernard, H. Russell. (2018). Research Methods in Anthropology. 6th edition.
Chapters 8 and 11.
• Bosoni, Maria, et al. 2019. "Between Change and Continuity: Fathers and Work-Life Balance in Italy. In Balancing Work and Family in a Changing Society.” Isabella and Elisabetta Crespi, eds. Palgrave.
• Counihan Carole. “Commensality, Family and Community.” 2004. In Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence, Routledge, pp. 117-138.
Pandolfini, 2014. Female employment and family balance in Italy: A comparison with other European Mediterranean Countries." Italian Sociological Review 4(1).

Week 8: Fatherhood and masculinity
• Crespi, Isabella and Elisabetta Ruspini. Balancing Work and Family in a Changing Society: The Fathers’ Perspective. Palgrave.
• Bosoni, M. 2014. “Breadwinners” or Involved Fathers.? Men, Fathers and Work in Italy. J. of Comparative Family Studies 45(2):293.
• Cannito, M. Beyond “Traditional” and “New:” An Attempt of Redefinition of Contemporary Fatherhoods through Discursive Practices and Practices of Care. Men and Masculinities 23(3).

Week 9: Reproduction, politics and family law
• Marchesi, Milena. 2012. “Reproducing Italians: contested biopolitics in the age of ‘replacement anxiety.’” Anthropology & Medicine 19(2).
• Hanafin, Patrick. 2013. “Law, Biopolitics and Reproductive Citizenship: the Case of Assisted Reproduction in Italy.” J. of Science and Technology Studies (1): 45-68.
• Bracke, Maud. 2017. Feminism, the state, and the centrality of reproduction: abortion struggles in Italy. Social History 42(4).
• Week 10: Migration, Citizenship and National Identity
• Heywood, Paolo. New Anthropologies of Italy (2025). chapters on migration and its impact on gender and family.
• Lombardi-Diop, Cristina and Caterina Romeo. 2012. Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity. Palgrave. Chapters1-2.

Week 11: Aging in Italy and Caring for Elders
• Di Rosa, M, et. al. 2012. The impact of migrant work in the elder care sector: recent trends and empirical evidence in Italy. European J. of Social Work. 1:9-27.
• Da Roit, Barbara, et al. 2007. “Changing Intergenerational Solidarities within Families in a Mediterranean Welfare State: Elderly Care in Italy.” Current Sociology 55(2).
• Lyon, D. 2006. “Organization of Care Work in Italy: Gender and Migrant Labor in the New Economy.” J. of Global Legal Studies 207.

Week 12: Presentations of Research Projects and Course Conclusion
• Final Presentations: students present the findings from their class projects to the class.
• Review of the course and a final discussion on how gender norms in Italy are continuing to evolve in the 21st century.

Last updated: December 3, 2025