Introduction. In a different voice

The conquest of the alphabet was often for women the first step towards freedom: freedom to think, travel, work, to feel and become part of the world and not considered as simple subjects with were not allowed to speak. Education has set minds and hearts in motion, has re-discussed ancestral certainties, has designed hopes never conceived until then, has opened the doors that were well locked with powerful guardians. For this reason, and for anyone who wants to trace historical paths searching for the lives and destinies of individual women, it is necessary to start from their formation, from their Bildung, made up of many fragments: home, family, readings, friendships, mentors, lights. This book and the single chapters composing it are devoted to those women who fought a long battle on school desks just to allow us to be here and tell their stories.