Congist'26: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Crisis

Gender, Crisis and Early Feminism: Comparative Perspectives from Ottoman-Turkish and Italian Contexts (19th-20th Centuries)

D3-S1-A6

15 May 2026, 10:20

20m

A6 (Istanbul University Faculty of Letters)

Oral Presentation Session 1.1 (Day 3)

Speaker

Barbara Dell’Abate Çelebi (İstanbul University)

Description

Political, social, and cultural crises have historically acted as catalysts for change. However, wars, revolutions, and the founding of new nations often feature men as the main protagonists, leaving women relegated to the margins. Yet, crises can create opportunities for pioneering women to assert their agency and challenge the patriarchal structures of the society in which they live. This is especially evident when we look at Italy and the Ottoman Empire during the period between the late 19th and the early 20th century. This was a period of significant political and social upheavals, but also the time when women became for the first time active participants in the process of shaping the course of social and intellectual progress and nation-building.
This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of the crisis investing the late Ottoman Empire and Italy during this specific period, analyzing the responses to the crisis by some major pioneering Ottoman Turkish and Italian women, considered nowadays by many critics as early feminists. In analyzing the strategies employed by these pioneering women, this paper will follow three main directions: political activism, literature as resistance, and education as liberation.
Within the first section on political activism, it will concentrate on Nezihe Muhiddin (1889-1958) and Anna Maria Mozzoni (1837-1920). In the second section on literature on Fatma Aliye (1862-1936) and Sibilla Aleramo (1876-1960), and in the third section on education on Halide Edib Adıvar (1884-1964) and Maria Montessori (1870-1952).
This paper aims to offer an original contribution to the study of crises by revealing the similarities and differences in the ways enlightened women in the late Ottoman Empire/Early Republic and in Italy, in the same historical timeframe, faced and responded to major crises and social transitions.