ISIG | Presentation and Discussion of the Volume “Il Lavoro delle Donne nelle Città dell’Europa Moderna”

The “Oval table discussion on modern history” is a cycle of seminar meetings designed to foster discussion and scientific exchange between modern-day history scholars, a free, informal, historiographical update on current research.

We gather around the oval table of the Italian-German Historical Institute at lunchtime from 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm.

The seminar will be an opportunity to reflect on how a female worker would live in a modern Europe city, what opportunities would have been offered to her, and which barriers would she have encountered on her working career and what activities would she be allowed to carry out and to what wages could she aspire. The author will discuss her recent volume “The Work of Women in the Cities of Modern Europe”, Rome 2016, which reconstructs the role of craftswomen, women merchants, nannies and prostitutes, but also women in the arts, journalism and industry, who had a critical role in the economic evolution of European society, despite the many limitations that laws and traditions imposed on their freedom of action and movement.

Based on a large international bibliography and unpublished archive research, Anna Bellavitis offers a rich overview of the economic activities of women in homes and shops, on roads and markets, in convents and hospitals, incorporating also them in the great changes that characterized the modern age, from globalization to industrialization, from religious reforms to the revolution in consumption, within a vast geographical area, ranging from Italy to Scandinavia, Spain, Poland.

For organizational reasons it is mandatory to register at least two days before the meeting
    Please send an email to