Mattarella: “Women are asked for extra effort, prejudices and stereotypes resurface”

Mattarella: “Women are asked for extra effort”

The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella remembered Giulia Cecchettin during his speech on the occasion of International Women's Day in which he underlined how, even today, women have to face an “additional effort” to express themselves.

In the presence, among others, of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the President of the Chamber Lorenzo Fontana, Mattarella began his speech by talking about the theme chosen this year to celebrate March 8, namely “Women of Art”.

“Women and art or, rather, women of art is the theme we have chosen for this Women's Day 2024. A topic that wants to underline the female contribution in the imagination, in the creativity of the arts. A contribution of great importance – and too often overlooked or sometimes even ignored – in one of the fundamental sectors for the very life of humanity. Art is not an escape from reality, it does not represent the superfluous. Those who evaluate it in this way have a narrow and distorted vision of existence and deny at the root the very nature of the human person, his innate and irrepressible desire for research, inspiration, interpretation of reality. Art is an essential part of the history of humanity. Without it the world would be gray and dull. Eugène Ionesco claimed: 'The need to imagine, to create, is as fundamental as the need to breathe. Breathing is living and not escaping from life'”.

The Head of State then added: “Women – in art as in many other fields – in order to express themselves and realize themselves have had to face an additional amount of effort, an additional amount of commitment, almost a hidden and inexplicable burden on their activity”.

“As if additional obligations were required of them and they had to continually pass more rigorous tests and judgments. That they always had to demonstrate the value and expressive capacity underlying their art. This is unfortunately a well-known, widely studied phenomenon, which has its roots in prejudices and stereotypes regarding women; prejudices that still resurface even in societies that consider themselves more advanced”.

Something, however, according to Mattarella is changing: “There are more and more women writers climbing the circulation charts or working at the top of publishing houses. In the musical field, the categories that assigned roles or instruments according to gender are being overcome, with very capable orchestra conductors and musicians playing instruments once usually reserved for their male colleagues. In cinema and theatre, the number of female directors and producers is increasing, who create films or shows with their own unique imprint. Likewise in the figurative arts, in architecture, in design”.

According to the Head of State a spring is underway. A spring that must be welcomed and supported “without forgetting the many obstacles that still exist – of a material and cultural nature – to achieving effective full equality”.

Then the thought for Giulia Cecchettin and all the victims of feminicide: “How can we not remember the victims of the many feminicides, even in recent days? How can we not remember, above all, Gulia Cecchettin, whose tragedy involved the whole of Italy in horror and pain? It has been said many times – even in those days – that a profound cultural action is needed to ensure that everyone acquires an authentic sense of the relationship between women and men: art is an effective and driving vehicle for training and transmitting the values ​​of life”.