At the Industrial Heritage Museum an exhibition – until 17 November 2019 – which highlights the female figure in relation to work and education during the years of the economic miracle.
At the center of the path is the theme of professional education and women’s work in industrial contexts, with a focus on the Bologna area.
Bologna, and Emilia-Romagna as a whole, experienced an impetuous industrial expansion in the years of the economic miracle (1958-1963), of which women were also protagonists. However, the important quantitative growth of female industrial employment did not correspond to a qualification of women’s work.
Vocational education thus became a topic of discussion and political action for women’s associations, committed to promoting the entry of women into technical-industrial institutes such as Aldini Valeriani to offer new opportunities for skilled work and training not geared exclusively to traditional feminine works.
The photographs on display embrace the chronological period between the second half of the forties and the late sixties of the twentieth century and come from the photographic archives of the UDI of Bologna, the Museum of Industrial Heritage of Bologna (Fondi Aldini Valeriani and Fototecnica Bolognese) and the Monte del Bologna and Ravenna Foundation (Fund of the Villani Photo Studio).
In the initial part two main nuclei stand out: the images related to sewing and tailoring courses, in particular for unemployed girls, and those of the Women’s Industrial and Technical Institute, a new school belonging to the Aldini Valeriani. In the second part, dedicated to work in the factory, there are some series relating to environments and departments of historic Bolognese companies, such as Farmac-Zabban, Weber, Ducati Elettronica and Arco.
Info
Museo del Patrimonio Industriale
Via della Beverara, 123 – Bologna
Entrance ticket to the museum (€ 5,00 full / € 3.00 reduced)
(Photo: Bologna Industrial Technical Institute, adjustment exercise, 1963-’64. Photographic archive of the Industrial Heritage Museum)
