Against the “Monopoly of Man”: The Ante Litteram Intersectional Approach of Anna Kuliscioff and Borderless Feminism

The struggles against various forms of violence and oppression—starting with domestic violence, which imposes despotic forms of relationships by men— encompasses struggles for the right to education and access to all forms of knowledge (including scientific and technological knowledge). It also includes demands for economic independence, decent working conditions and equal pay, new forms of territorial, mutualist and community-based social assistance, self-determination and motherhood. More generally, it is a fight for civil, political, and social rights— against all forms of gender-based discrimination, which shows a version of feminism capable of continuously crossing boundaries, of transcending borders. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate, first and foremost, how this feminist perspective diverges from forms of feminism that confine themselves within the institutional framework. Drawing on the work of Anna Kuliscioff—a cosmopolitan and prominent figure in Italian socialism and feminism at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this chapter illuminates how her work can be regarded as a rediscovered precursor, anticipating what is now recognized as an intersectional perspective. Kuliscioff’s life, as the “doctor of the poor” and “of rights”, the “lady of Italian socialism”, was always guided by freedom: the freedom of her choices— practiced not only for herself but also advocated for other women and, in general, for all human beings—sustained and supported her unwavering commitment against discrimination, exploitation, and oppression. She fought tirelessly and relentlessly, not only for universal suffrage for women of all classes and social conditions—the “main goal” of emancipatory feminist battles—but also for the dignity of labor, health, and education for all women.