Negotiating authority through feminism : girls’ political experience in Italian social movements

In this chapter we investigate the relationship between girls and feminism as a lens for interpreting gendered relations of power and authority that define political participation within social movements in Italy. Starting from our dual position as researchers and activists, we focus on semi-structured interviews with girls working in occupied and self-managed spaces, to understand which roads they follow to negotiate different forms of authority, and whether feminist reflections find space on those paths. By reconstructing the genealogy of the feminists’ thoughts—capable of challenging the modern conception of power, and therefore also that of authority—we aim at highlighting their echoes within the girls’ discourses and practices. In doing so, this chapter offers an understanding on how the girls’ gaze on the world can build new practices and new perceptions of the exercise of power and authority.