Lella Palladino

What were the most important stages of your personal and professional life?

I'm starting with my degree in 1987. It was a fundamental moment for me: a stage of arrival and, at the same time, the first small recognition of my commitment and my studies. I didn't think it would go so well. On the day of the discussion I had one of the most severe teachers, who demanded perfection: passing that exam was the starting point, it gave me back great self-confidence. I believe that one of the central themes of my life —and of many women — is precisely that of building, step by step, an idea of oneself as a person capable of changing things. From there my commitment began, which has always kept my professional life and political commitment together. Despite the difficulties — important recognitions but also moments of work emptiness — I have always felt like an agent of change. My study and work have always been oriented towards moving women's rights a little further, creating greater opportunities and, above all, gaining margins of freedom, both in the private and public spheres. I gave up my college career quite early. At 27 I had my first child and combining research work with care and family life times was very difficult. My commitment began first as a volunteer and then with a scholarship from the Local Health Unit of Caserta, working on two projects for women: the prevention of relapses for the voluntary termination of pregnancy (Law 194) and the prevention of breast cancer. The monitoring activity of the seven consultatories of that period of the Caserta Local Health Authority trained me a lot, both operationally and politically, with respect to the protection of women's rights, in particular on self-determination, health and reproductive choices. In the same years I began working with women's groups on issues of violence. After an initial training course, I gained experience at Telefono Rosa in Caserta and then, in 1996, after the birth of my third child, I founded, collaborating with a local association, the first anti-violence center and the first shelter for battered women in Campania. From there began a thirty-year social work that has a national vision. I began to frequent national networks, in particular “Differenza Donna”, and to become interested in the topic of trafficking in women for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Starting from the difficulties I saw for myself and for many other women involved in associations, I founded the Social Cooperative EVA in 1999. The cooperative was for me “my fourth child” and became the place where I was able to build concrete responses to women's needs, but also an important piece of my political commitment. The cooperative exists today thanks to a group of women who helped consolidate it and lead it. My story it is a mix of many stories of women I have met and who have changed me, my portrait is a “collective puzzle”. If I have to think about what really changed my life, it wasn't work, nor the cancer diagnosis: it was becoming a mother. I say this as a feminist, without rhetoric, but being a mother is part of my identity. My 3 children, with their differences, with the difficulties and joy that they give me back every day, are part of what I have become.

Was there a figure who inspired and guided her in her professional life?

Definitely my mentor, Amalia Signorelli, who continues to inspire me even after her passing. Amalia was a guide, I don't write a line without thinking about her method, her vision. He taught me to always start from the cultural roots that guide social, political and personal action. Cultural dynamics are the key to reading problems and also to building solutions. For example, when we talk about male violence against women, we must know that this is rooted in culture. To really change things, we must work on the culture that generates it, reproduces it, legitimizes it. This approach also allows us to understand the condition of subordination “internalized” by many women, helps us explain why, sometimes, they seem to be complicit in their own condition. It is a profound cultural process, which must be transformed. Another’ equally important figure in my life was my mother, a woman born in the ’30 years who, even in a difficult era, managed to build a path of personal and professional independence. She was a role model for me. I am the woman I am also thanks to her, to her sense of duty, to her silent strength. With her I learned that autonomy is achieved day by day, even in silence, even in the shadows.