This past week, chatting away at the dinner table, I was asked about one of my favorite books. My answer was swift: ‘Il Gattopardo’ -”The Leopard”- the masterpiece of Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
The novel narrates the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Italian Risorgimento, the revolution which led to the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a unified Italian State in 1861. Central to the story is the idea of change, feared and opposed by the dominant class, but also opportunistically embraced by those willing to re-invent themselves in exchange for a slice of new power. It is Tancredi, the aristocrat joining the revolution to safeguard his family interests, who speaks the novel’s most famous line: “If we want things to stay as they are” – he says – “things will have to change.”
Tancredi’s view is extremely fitting to describe the social status of a generation of women who – from India to Egypt – have enthusiastically embraced change, taking huge risks in the name of education, equal opportunities and progress. But unlike Tancredi, these women have welcomed change in their hearts, and have voluntarily positioned themselves outside traditional schemes. A choice that has given them a different status. These women are a novelty. The mainstream social-context around them hasn’t changed as rapidly as they have.
In the past two months, my job took me both to India -Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore- and Cairo where the Thomson Reuters Foundation continues to expand. I had the opportunity to meet incredibly talented young women: journalists, lawyers, doctors. And I found that they have many things in common: they are empowered, emancipated, successful, in their thirties or early fourties … and single, mostly living at home with their parents.
For many of them being single is not a real choice. It’s a consequence. In traditionally male-dominated societies, a career and a degree don’t belong to the dowry, in fact they are often seen as a deal-breaker.
