Noi donne

History and profile

Noi donne was illegally published between 1937 and 1939 in Paris by the Italian women exiled there before its official start in 1944. Its publication was possible only after the liberation of Rome. The founders led by Valentina Palumbo and Adele Cambria were communist women. The headquarters of the magazine was in Naples, then it moved to Rome. From 1945 to the 1990s it was the official magazine of the Unione Donne in Italia (UDI; Union of Italian Women). The Union was closely connected to and financed by the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The magazine is circulated monthly, and its website was launched in 2004. It was previously published on a weekly basis.

Noi donne was not established as a magazine targeting bourgeois Italian women. Its target audience is women on the left. Maria Casalini claimed that the magazine was instrumental in introducing Italian women to the political arena of democratic Italy. However, at the beginning of the 1950s its focus was on entertainment, daily life and culture. Later, the magazine again began to cover articles on politics, social change, culture, women's equality, violence against women and health. In 2001 Newsweek described Noi donne as a popular semifeminist magazine. In addition, it was less feminist than other magazines such as Effe and Differenze.

The editors of Noi donne have been women. Maria Antonietta Macciocchi, an Italian politician and writer, served as the editor of the magazine from 1950 to 1956. She replaced Fidia Gambetti in the post. Bia Sarasini was the cultural editor during the 1990s.

In the 1970s Noi donne enjoyed higher levels of circulation.