Introduction

Abstract

Ten years ago, a group of women, professors, senior and junior researchers, started La camera blu, the first gender studies review of the University of Naples Federico II. The War and the women’s involvement was decided to be the first topic to deal with. The choice was due to two main considerations: a) the difference that crucial historical moments, wars and revolutions particularly, meant for men and women; b) the conspicuous absence of women’s experience in literature and history accounts. The idea that war is “ men’s business, not ladies” was at the heart of it. In not a surprisingly way, new aspects were pointed out such as the split between national and private history, the complex way the cultural memory of a nation is developed, the separation between individual ideology and national ideology.