ABSTRACT
It would be difficult for me to conclude a project of this nature without making some reference to Gramsci’s relation to feminist theory, to feminism, to women. I would like to point out right away that as far as the latter issue is concerned, Gramsci’s relations to women, as they evolved in the context ofhis position as one of the major leaders of the Italian working-class movement, and as they were shaped by his unfortunate long imprisonment, deteriorating health and impending death, do not lend themselves to a happy interpretation. Indeed, the picture is, taken from a late twentieth-century point ofview, not a rosy one. It carries the distinct mark of a pernicious historical rationality that exerted, and often still exerts, a destructive influence on the lives of women.
