Every woman is many women, we are all different, but the struggle of one of us gives rights to all the others, forever. In history what is most striking is often the absence of women and how they have always been defined in relation to the male model; I believe that our strength lies precisely in this: in not having any models to refer to.
The condition of women has certainly improved compared to the past thanks, today, to greater participation in society and political life with struggles that have often been long and difficult and that have shown stories of true resilience.
In this issue of ParkTime Magazine, completely dedicated to women, we will talk about the Literary Parks that pay homage to them, how each of them has left their historical contribution to culture and how they have become examples for all of us.
We think about Grazia Deledda who, as the essayist Neria De Giovanni writes, “she managed to combine, in her life as a woman, the care of the family with her great vocation for writing. We remember that she was the only woman of the six Nobel Laureates in Italian literature”.
Writer Antonetta Carrabs pays homage to Margherita di Savoia, the queen who loved culture above all, to whom many illustrious poets and writers dedicated their immortal verses. "This year marks the 170th anniversary of the queen's birth. Beloved by her people, Margherita of Savoy, she loved poetry, literature and music".
We then travel to Caltanissetta with Professor Maria Luisa Sedita Migliore who introduces us to Inge Reidlich, Countess of Rosso di San Secondo and wife of Pier Maria, to whom the Literary Park is dedicated. "If Reidlich hadn't been there to urge the re-evaluation of this modern writer and his work everywhere, probably everything would have ended up in oblivion."
Even the Euganean Hills, confirms the tour guide Claudia Baldin, "have always been a very popular destination for many writers: d'Annunzio, Byron and Foscolo are certainly among the most named and prestigious ones who paid homage to the genius of Francesco Petrarca". Precisely in the same places where the Literary Park dedicated to Petrarca stands today, the female creative world has made its strong presence felt.
Baldin continues: "Local traditions, echoes of the Middle Ages or simply the charm of the hilly landscape have stimulated the pens of some writers who for different reasons have arrived in this area: from Mary Shelley to Vittoria Aganoor, from Margaret Symond to Silvia Rodella".
Eternal in time remains the poetry of Isabella Morra which, as the poetess and writer Elia Maria Antoinetta writes, is "the real transposition of the moods of a young woman who pursues dreams and builds projects, who cultivates her aspirations and defends them from external assaults".
We want to remember Marguerite Chapin Literary Park and the places of Caetani dedicated to a woman of culture who in the last century founded two prestigious literary magazines, Commerce and Botteghe Oscure, which hosted the writings of the most important intellectuals of the time: Pasolini, Truman Capote, John Keats, Dylan Thomas.
Another female figure "eclectic, a proto-feminist with very clear ideas about the rights that women should enjoy is undoubtedly Emma Perodi". Professor Alberta Piroci Branciaroli in fact writes that “already at the age of twenty-two Perodi proves to have very clear ideas regarding the position of women in Italian society. Of great interest, in this regard, is a letter dated 30 November 1872, written by Luserna di Bellosguardo in which the writer's answers to a poll of opinions, circulated by a Florentine noblewoman, Emilia Toscanelli Peruzzi to animate the debate in defending the right to vote for women, Perodi expounds her ideas on the condition of women who, according to her opinion, must study, work and leave the traditional role of angel of the hearth ”.
As we have seen, these women have helped to write history and to leave a definitive mark on culture. We have come a long way but there is still a long way to go to achieve equal rights on the path of women's emancipation and on the condition of women in the world.
Annalisa Nicastro
C/O Società Dante Alighieri 
