This issue will be discussed at an international conference on women's suffrage and women's political representation at the Research Center for Gender Studies and the Department of Humanities at the University of Trieste.

Eighty years after the first vote by Italian women, the University of Trieste, through its Research Center for Gender Studies and the Department of Humanities, is hosting a conference dedicated to the history of women's suffrage and women's political participation, with a perspective ranging from the global dimension to the specificities of the Italian and Trieste cases.

The conference will be held on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in the A. Agnelli Hall of the Department of Humanities, at Androna Campo Marzio 10, starting at 9:30 a.m. and will be divided into two thematic sessions.

The first session will outline the features of a global history in the long and complex journey toward the vote. Following an introduction by Elisabetta Vezzosi (University of Trieste), Vinzia Fiorino (University of Pisa), and Raffaella Baritono (University of Bologna), editors of a major volume recently published by Il Mulino, will offer a reflection on women's suffrage as a global phenomenon, capable of crossing vastly different geographical, cultural, and political boundaries. This will be followed by presentations by Cristiana Baldazzi, Silvia Inaudi, and Tullia Catalan, all from the University of Trieste, who will shift the focus to other contexts: the Arab world, Italy, and then Trieste. Baldazzi will broaden his gaze to the Arab world, focusing on Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, exploring the specificities and complexities of women's suffrage movements in political, cultural, and colonial contexts profoundly different from those of the West. Inaudi will retrace the long journey between gender and political citizenship from 1861 to 1946, while Catalan will draw attention to a crucial and often forgotten date, June 12, 1949, when the women of Trieste first exercised their right to vote during the Allied Military Government.

The afternoon session, chaired and introduced by Roberta Nunin, will focus on the achievements and challenges that follow access to the vote: institutional representation, political leadership, and civil rights. Speakers will include Dolores Ferrara, who will reflect on the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic through the contributions of the Founding Mothers and the fundamental principles of the Constitution; Elisabetta De Giorgi and Gaia Matilde Ripamonti will analyze gender dynamics in Italian political leadership; Emanuela Murgia will examine the relationship between female participation and professionalization in archaeology; Gina Chianese will offer a reflection on the prospects of emancipatory critical pedagogy; and Fabiana Martini will offer a journalistic perspective on women's governance in the region.

Conclusions will be delivered by Donata Vianelli, Rector of the University of Trieste.