Abstract

The essay reconstructs the strike of 1971 when a group of female workers began a struggle to remove the sexist discriminations they were facing. Through the analysis of unpublished archival sources and oral testimonies, the paper also examines the political battles conducted by the Union of Italian Women in Taranto. The public memory of the steel factory portrays Taranto as a city of steel, predominantly male and working-class. A gender perspective brings to the surface the stories of women who fought both inside and outside the factory for a city open to women’s emancipation.