Women’s Voices

This volume is centred on the voices of women belonging to different
generations, religious faiths and social classes, and presents a range of
possible life courses in the Alps and the pre-Alps during the Ancien Régime
and the early 19th century. Focusing on life trajectories that have emerged
from a gender-conscious reading of the sources, the contributions illustrate
how migration led women to take on roles of responsibility or follow their
husbands in their careers as artists, traders and businessmen. They also
reveal a widespread literacy that was combined with practical skills and
knowledge marked by biological, legal and religious preconceptions; these
features permeated the studied communities, where family, religious and
patronage ties prevailed upon the dichotomy of public sphere/private sphere.
The essays in this book deal with the web of complex social networks that
served to sustain the mutual autonomies as well as the strategies of living
together. The vitality and agency of the presented female figures help to
dispel the image of backwardness and passivity often associated with women
living in mountain regions.

With the contributions of: Patrizia Audenino, Marco Bettassa, Stefania
Bianchi, Camille Caparos, Marina Cavallera, Rolando Fasana, Madline Favre,
Sandro Guzzi-Heeb, Aline Johner, Ernest Menolfi, Anne Montenach, Miriam
Nicoli, Federica Re.