ABSTRACT
The merging of immigrant and Italian women into the same associations is relatively recent and is the focus of this chapter. From groups of native and migrant women working together, it is possible to gain further insight into how gender operates in relation to ethnicity, class, and a myriad of other factors when citizen nationals with a history of women’s activism are put before immigrant women whose life experiences and definitions of identity vary so greatly from their own. Encounters between native and migrant women have been complex and difficult for everyone involved. For migrant women, the full integration into society is at stake. To be recognized and valued as migrant women without having to erase markers of difference is a challenge. Italian women, on the other hand, are faced with the task of maturing their theories of gender and basing them not on abstractions or a limited knowledge of women in distant parts of the world, but on direct engagement with women whose diversity and special circumstances led them to Italy.
