The Fondazione Elvira Badaracco – Studi e documentazione delle donne – ETS was established on December 16, 1994, by Annarita Buttafuoco, who was named in the will of Elvira Badaracco as the lifelong guarantor of her economic, scientific, and political heritage.
The purpose of the Foundation is to promote the study of women’s culture and their political and social experience, with specific attention to the history of women’s associations and feminism.
Governing bodies
Board of Directors: Marina Zancan (guarantor), Maria Canella (president), Giovanna Rosa, Monica Cristina Storini, Chiara Tinonin, Paola Zocchi
Scientific Committee: Eloisa Betti, Maria Pia Bortolotti, Carlotta Cossutta, Nannerel Fiano, Fiorella Imprenti, Lea Melandri, Debora Migliucci, Irene Piazzoni, Raffaella Poletti, Francesca Rubini, Gabriella Seveso, Sara Sullam, Marina Zancan
Activities
The Elvira Badaracco Foundation, in continuity with the work carried out by the Centro di studi storici sul movimento di liberazione della donna in Italia (Center for Historical Studies on the Women’s Liberation Movement in Italy), aims to increase the study of the overall reality of women and to activate further areas of in-depth study defined within the framework of activity planning.
In this direction, alongside the growth of the inherited political and cultural heritage, the Foundation recognizes the political opportunity to value all forms of women’s intellectual work by reuniting the two elements—political experience and professionalism—that have challenged existing methodological and disciplinary frameworks in recent years. On such occasions, research hypotheses and current frameworks of political and historiographical thought are redefined, and knowledge of the past and present is modified, in order to involve women in the significant and engaging process of imagining the future.
The Foundation pursues the goals outlined in its Statute through multiple activities, supported by contributions from the Ministry of Culture and participation in funding calls from other entities, including the Lombardy Region:
- research organized across all sectors of inquiry related to the study of women’s culture and their political and social experience;
- organization and expansion of archival collections (paper and audio) as well as the specialized library, starting from the heritage transferred to the Foundation by the Center for Historical Studies on the Women’s Liberation Movement in Italy;
- development of criteria and methodologies for the processing and use of archival and library collections;
- establishment of scholarships and awards for scholars engaged in the Foundation’s fields of interest;
- scientific collaborations and relations with women’s centers, archives, and libraries with similar purposes to those of the Foundation, as well as universities, public and private entities, associations, and national and international institutes;
- organization of conferences, seminars, debates, and lectures;
- refresher and training courses for teachers, archivists, librarians, public officials, and, in general, women interested in the Foundation’s activities;
- publications of texts and materials resulting from the Foundation’s own activities;
- participation in relevant national and international networks and databases.
Participation in databases
The Foundation has long served as the Lombardy regional node of the Lilith Network, a database for automated research, from a gender perspective, of documentation and information available in women’s centers in Italy regarding what women write and produce: monographs, periodicals, typescripts, photos, and videos.
It participates in the collective catalog of the libraries of the National Library Service – SBN, promoted by the MiC (Ministry of Culture), the Regions, and Universities, and coordinated by the ICCU (Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries). The library’s titles are therefore present in the catalog of the SBN Lombardy Regional Hub and in the SBN National Catalog. To consult the catalog, you can access the SBN Lombardy Regional Hub – OPAC website and select the Elvira Badaracco Foundation Library Milan from the drop-down menu.
History
Elvira Badaracco was born in Alessandria on May 22, 1911. As a teenager, she moved with her parents to Milan where, in 1979, she founded the Center for Historical Studies on the Women’s Liberation Movement in Italy with Pierrette Coppa.
Initially, the Center was hosted by the Feltrinelli Foundation before moving, in 1991, to the Unione Femminile Nazionale, the historic headquarters of Milanese women. On November 12, 2009, the Foundation inaugurated its new headquarters at Via Menabrea 13 in Milan.
The development and consolidation of the Center—due above all to the dedication of Elvira Badaracco herself, who knew how to coordinate a national secretariat made up of scholars from different backgrounds and expertise—confirmed her conviction that it was necessary to guarantee a solid future for this research and study institution, including through the transformation of its institutional form.
This conviction was expressed by Elvira Badaracco in her will, drafted in April 1993, in which she stipulated that the Center for Historical Studies on the Women’s Liberation Movement in Italy should become a Foundation, with purposes similar to those of the Center but with greater prospects for development and strengthening, protected in part by the income from a real estate property she left to the Foundation.
Elvira Badaracco died in Milan on January 21, 1994, and in December of the same year, the Foundation was formally established by Annarita Buttafuoco, who had been appointed by Badaracco herself in her will as the lifelong guarantor of the economic, scientific, and political heritage she left behind.
Upon the death of Annarita Buttafuoco in 1999, this role was transferred to Marina Zancan.
Photo Gallery
Support us
Support the Fondazione Elvira Badaracco Studi e documentazione delle donne – ETS by allocating your 5 per mille in your CUD, 730, and REDDITI PF tax returns.
In the section relating to “Support for Third Sector entities registered in the Runts referred to in art. 46, c.1. of Legislative Decree July 3, 2017 n. 117“, you can sign and enter the tax code of the Elvira Badaracco Foundation: 11398560158.
Support us
Support the Fondazione Elvira Badaracco Studi e documentazione delle donne – ETS by allocating your 5 per mille in your CUD, 730, and UNICO tax returns.
In the section relating to “Support for volunteering and other non-profit organizations of social utility, social promotion associations, and recognized associations and foundations“, you can sign and indicate the tax code of the Foundation: 11398560158.