International Women’s Day – Italian Style

Photo from Magazine A accompanying article on my blog

It’s March 8th, International Women’s Day, when we are supposed to celebrate  the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.  In Italy people give women mini-bouquets of yellow mimosa flowers.

Mimosa flower given to women on International Women's Day in Italy

I will leave the background and history of internationlal women’s day to other bloggers, but I want to say that an Italian Magazine called “A” just published an article on my blog explaining that this is how a foreigner sees the situation for women in Italy.  They took elements from various posts to put together the article.  The headline is “An American Judges Us: We are Mozzarella Mammas” – “For the Reporter Trisha Thomas we are Bringing Up Big Babies. But Some Things they Envy.  Our Legs, for Example.”

Scanned copy of Article for A Magazine on my Blog

I got a real kick out of the photo they put with the article. It summed up exactly what I have been writing all along : women in Italy are expected to do it all –cook, clean, work, care for the kids, do laundry – and be beautiful and sexy while they are doing it!

A big thank you to “A” Editor Maria Latella, and happy International Women’s Day to all my women blog readers!!

 

 

13 thoughts on “International Women’s Day – Italian Style”

  1. . . this would go down a storm in the village coffee houses here – Turkish men think they have it made where women are concerned – but this is going to have them applying for visas in droves! Good Luck you Mammas!

  2. Hi Trisha,

    I love it! Congratulazioni! The photo is perfect – I so enjoy your posts. How lovely to see you get such great recognition! I am always surprised at how people do expect women to “do it all”, and I am pretty pleased to see how we do. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Congrats! Happy International Women’s Day! Good for you to be shedding light on women’s issues! You have made your point – lightening rod and all:-) Perhaps now other magazines will pick up on it too.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Gwen! I wish an American paper or magazine would show some interest in my Italian mothering material.
      Happy International Women’s Day to you too!

  4. Barbara Landi

    And do all the women have such a fantastic kitchen too? When I was there, all I saw were cramped little kitchens like “closets” where somehow these super mamme created incredibly delicious meals. (love the hooker heels!)

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Barbara, that is a very interesting point. No, you never see a kitchen like that in Italy. As you say, they are all cramped little rooms miles and miles from the dining room. I have a minuscule kitchen where there is no room for a place to sit. If two people are in it at the same time they bump into each other constantly and you can barely open the stove and the dishwasher at the same time. But even if you do manage to open the stove and the dishwasher at the same time, you can’t run them at the same time or the power outs. Whenever we have a dinner party I have to spend the evening running back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room and I have to put an extra table out in the hallway to pile up the dirty dishes on. In Italy, if you have a dinner party there are usually lots of dirty dishes because you have the primo, then change plates and have the secondo. So lots of dirty plates. Perhaps I should to a tiny kitchen post. Thanks for the idea. Always love reading you comments. Trisha

  5. Gretchen Bloom

    What a contrast to the film shown by the American Women’s Association of Rome (AWAR) last evening in Rome, on the Women’s Peace Movement in Liberia that overthrew Charles Taylor, called ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’, for which the leaders won the Nobel Peace Prize!! Go Liberia! Go Italy! Thanks for sharing your insights, Trisha!

  6. Hi Trisha, I just read the article in A and went straight to your blog! I’m very curious as I’m a foreigner with an Italian other half, too. And although I’m living in the North, I do think I’ll recognise a lot in your stories! ;-)

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you! I am so pleased to hear that someone found my Blog after reading the article in A. Hope you enjoy it!

  7. The hilarious thing about their choice of that photo to illustrate that “Italian women are expected to do it all,” of course, is that the woman in the photo is Bridget Moynahan — an American actress of Irish ancestry. (You can tell by the electrical outlet on the wall behind her that isn’t an Italian kitchen.)

    1. Trisha Thomas

      That is so funny. I didn’t even notice the sockets and had no clue who that woman was. Thanks for pointing it out.

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