ABSTRACT
The process of modernizing production proposed by Fiat was impracticable outside of a "green field", that is to say a setting with no tradition in manufacturing or trade union organization. Most significant was the possibility of implementing a new kind of job contract through the establishment of a new company, SATA, which established conditions of work based on lower salaries, more intense work shifts, and a greater percentage of women workers than other FIAT factories. The post-Fordist model promised the arrival of a new kind of worker, different in terms of their skills and the range of their responsibilities. This chapter analyzes how the Japanese production model, in its Italian incarnation of the integrated factory, influenced the meanings of work and identity and the self-perception of workers, particularly from the perspective of women or, more accurately, from a gender perspective.
