Women pioneers in civil engineering and architecture in Italy: Emma Strada and Ada Bursi

It is well known that Italian culture has discriminated against women in the fields of education and profession. Why is this? Before and immediately after the Second World War, women civil engineers and architects used strategies to overcome their gender marginality. Did these strategies influence their experiences within the profession and the recognition they received? What were the factors that enabled women to enter the patriarchal spheres of the professions? What were the roles of the first female civil engineers and architects in Italy and especially in Turin which was the capital of industry? What motivated their choice of profession and how were these women received in the male-dominated professional world? The history of two almost unknown female pioneers, Emma Strada and Ada Bursi, helps answer these questions and it gives rise to new ones.