Brave New Women

The dragonfly, an example of equilibrium and adaptability, is the symbol of Brave New Women.

The project portal is online.

Despite the limitations posed by the existing health crisis, the project of the Centre for Studies and Documentation of Female Thinking in Turin continues, developed together with the Department of Law and Political, Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Eastern Piedmont and the Anti-violence Centre of the province of Alessandria, me.dea, with the collaboration of the Social Work Consortium of Alessandria - C.I.S.S.A.C.A as stakeholder, called “Brave New Women”.

The project, co-financed by the Compagnia di San Paolo with the "Call for Ideas-are: ideas to innovate", intends to identify practices and aspirations related to the reconstruction of sustenance and care networks by women over 55, who do not live in couples, and outline possible forms of legal protection for them.

After the launch of the initiative in the summer of 2020, the research work began in recent months with a survey of local and international best practices, to seek and analyse experiences that could be of inspiration and guidance. The results are published on the project website, hosted on the portal of the Anti-violence Centre Centro antiviolenza me.dea.

This digital space is another novelty and is available to all people who want to expand their knowledge of the project or be part of it. At the basis of the work, in fact, there is the idea of ​​participatory research in the logic of Community-Based Participatory Research. With the involvement of local services, associations and committees, a group of eight co-researchers has been set up, who, together with the sociological researchers, participate with experiences and questions, defining the research objectives and tools. It is this group of women who collect and share their experiences, their experiences of solidarity and care and their aspirations with writings and images, also interviewing other women, in the same age group and situation.

In thinking of these women, the idea emerged of associating the project with the image of the dragonfly, an insect with elegant balance, apparently slender, but actually capable of rapid and safe flight thanks to its long horizontal wings.

In the logo, designed to visually represent Brave New Women, the dragonfly is not alone, but in a group, just as the protagonists of the project draw strength from sharing.

Brave New Women runs until 2022 and the results will be presented in two forms:

• moments of dialogue with the scientific community, co-researchers, local administrations, services, associations and committees, to share possible interventions and policies
• photographic exhibition starting from the images collected by the co-researchers with the aim of visually narrating the research process and presenting the imagery of investigated and pre-set mutual assistance experiences.

A Guide to rights will also be drawn up, addressed to all people, but in particular to women, who find themselves in their senior years outside of a couple relationship. The latter will have the purpose of illustrating the main safeguards already provided for by the regulatory system, as well as translating the needs that emerged in the investigation into legal proposals and implementation policies to suggest new creative forms of sharing spaces and resources.