Women in the Wave stand up
In Onda, the student movement, there’s an initiative to participate in the national demonstration against male violence against women. The demo takes place in Rome this Saturday, 22 November.
At Sapienza, "Women in the Wave" have written a call in which they explain why this demonstration is important. They emphasize that in the current movement, women have been protagonists right from the beginning. The protest against the Gelmini decree was started by female teachers and mothers. They point out that discrimination of women in the labor market is particularly strong in Italy.
The call emphasizes the need to bring discussion about gender issues to schools and universities. "We don’t believe that knowledge is neutral, we don’t believe there is equality between genders, when at the university it’s evident how women almost never get to the top positions in the power hierarchy". Female docents are a minority. In the official didactics at the university there’s no discussion about gender issues. "It is necessary to construct moments of self-education (autoformazione) through which to construct different knowledges".
The call also criticizes the way women’s body has been instrumentalized to support securitarian politics: criminalization of prostitution, militarization of streets, criminalization of migrants. The call presents some concrete demands too. "We want a welfare that enables women’s independence. We want counselling in all the schools and universities, and education which speaks about sexuality starting from the elementary schools."