Maintaining a Movement: Gendered Violence and Resistance in Italy

When 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin became the 105th femicide victim in Italy in 2023, the country erupted into protest over long simmering tensions surrounding gender-based violence. Italy lags behind other major economies in key measures of gender equality and has struggled to bring down the relatively high number of femicides that take place in the country annually. 

Eight months later, the more muted response to the killing of 42-year-old Manuela Pentrangeli in the outskirts of Rome highlighted difficulty in maintaining public outrage. At the same time, it revealed the unshaken resolve of a small group of feminists to bear witness to an entrenched femicide problem.

For these feminists, who are part of the national movement Non Una Di Meno, showing up is key—for one another, and their peers in other countries, and to bear witness to each death. The collective nature of the movement is key to the women's success—when one member grows tired or needs to step back, others will fill the gap while they are gone. 

This reporting project examines the everyday work of a movement when the urgency of a problem remains, but the eyes of a distractible public and press have turned elsewhere.