Effe. A feminist self-managed monthly magazine

“Effe”’s editorial board on Novembr, 1973. From the left: Danielle Lantin Turone, Agnese De Donato, Daniela Colombo, Grazia Francescato, Lara Foletti. Source: historical archive of Effe, a feminist self-managed monthly magazine.

Title of the magazine:
“Effe”. A feminist self-managed monthly magazine

Dates: February 1973 – 1982

Place of publication: Rome

Editorial committee: Danielle Lantin Turone, Agnese De Donato, Daniela Colombo, Grazia Francescato, Lara Foletti.

Description:
“Effe” was firstly published in February 1973 from the initiative of Donata Francescato and Daniela Colombo, who decided to start a weekly female counter-informative magazine. The magazine initially started as a weekly publication before becoming a monthly, first published by Dedalo publishing house and later by the Cooperative Effe. It closed in 1982 but is now available online in its dedicated historical archive.
The magazine gives an overview of the Italian feminist debate between 1973 and 1982, in which intellectuals, writers, teachers, and women from all social classes participated by gathering in the editorial office of Piazza Campo Marzio 7 in Rome. The topics addressed in “Effe” range from heated political issues that directly involve women’s right to self-determination, such as the debate on law n. 194, to historical inquiries about figures such as Christine de Pizan, who can be linked to the construction of a feminist “counter-canon” in Italian and European culture. Prominent intellectuals such as Dacia Maraini and Simone de Beauvoir were interviewed by “Effe”. The activists of “Effe” operated from a transnational and supportive perspective, seeking to highlight the differences among movements flourishing in different areas of the world, as indicated by Manuela Fraire’s comment on the International Feminist Congress in Belgrade, in which she refers to the different needs of Western feminism and beyond those moments present on the other side of Iron Curtain (cf. Fraire 1978: web).
“Effe” has indeed discussed the status of women’s rights in various parts of the world, delving into feminist struggles in Latin America (cf. Francescato 1980: web), the female condition in Albania (cf. Bolognese 1976: web), and Russian dissident feminist movements. The interest in Russian feminism was not new to the editorial staff of “Effe”, which reviewed The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist by Aleksandra Kollontai in 1974 and reflected on the difficulties faced by women in reconciling public and private life while commenting on the novel Vassilissa by the well-known Russian feminist. Similarly, with the intention of analyzing the gender pay gap in Italy, Anna Heiz and Rosanna Foglia Manzillo cite Nataliia Baranskaia’s A week like any other to compare the status of women’s emancipation in Russia, a point of pride for the Russian state, with the situation of women’s rights in Italy. The peak of “Effe”’s interest in Russian feminism is in 1980, when the editorial staff devotes the first and second issues of January 1980 to the partial Italian translation of the almanac Zhenshchina i Rossiia, arousing interest and solidarity among Italian activists to the point of criticizing the political choices of the Italian Communist Party, with which they were ideologically aligned: “What surprises us, however, is the silence with which the publication of the samizdat Women and Russia has been received in Italy, a country where exists the strongest and most autonomous communist party in Western Europe. Is it excessive caution? Political opportunity? These are likely reasons but not sufficient to explain such disinterest” (Redazione di “Effe” 1980: 7-8).
The alliance between “Effe” and Zhenshchina i Rossiia, mediated by the editorial staff of the monthly magazine Des femmes en mouvement hebdo, continues with the publication of an appeal by Tat’iana Mamonova for the release of Vera Golubeva and Nataliia Lazareva, culminating in the visit of the Russian almanac’s editor-in-chief to Rome on October 16, 1981 (cf. de Leo 1981: web).”

                                                                                                                      Valentina Bagozzi
[30^th June 2025]

Bibliography

• Francescato D., Nicaragua: le donne non sono tornate a casa, “Effe, mensile femminista autogestito”, 7-8 (July 1980), online https://efferivistafemminista.it/2014/11/nicaragua-le-donne-non-sono-tornate-a-casa (last accessed: 12/04/2023).
• Bolognese L., Oh Albania, “Effe, mensile femminista autogestito”, 12 (December 1976), online https://efferivistafemminista.it/2015/01/oh-albania/ (last accessed: 12/04/2023).
• Redazione di Effe, Perché è così speciale, “Effe, mensile femminista autogestito”, 1-2 ( January 1980), online https://efferivistafemminista.it/2015/02/perche-cosi-speciale/ (last accessed: 12/04/2023).
• Fraire M., Belgrado: un congresso che si farà “dopo”, “Effe, mensile femminista autogestito”, 12 (December 1978), online https://efferivistafemminista.it/2014/12/belgrado-un-congresso-che-si-fara-dopo/ (last accessed: 12/04/2023).
• Redazione di Effe, Premessa a “Memorie da un carcere di Leningrado”, “Effe, mensile femminista autogestito”, 7-8 (July 1980), online https://efferivistafemminista.it/2014/11/memoria-da-un-carcere-di-leningrado/ (last accessed: 12/04/2023).