The intellectual who fought for women's empowerment

Antonio Mancini (1893) Portrait of Eugenia Vitali Lebrecht, oil on canvas - Achille Forti Modern Art Gallery, Verona

Born in Ferrara in 1858 into a Jewish family, Eugenia Vitali moved to Verona in 1880 to marry Guglielmo Lebrecht, a wealthy businessman who would always support his wife's emancipationist ideas.

Attentive to culture and women's issues, she was convinced that only a modern, secular and scientific school education can accelerate the material and legal emancipation of women. Eugenia was in contact with national and international progressive circles. She adhered, from its inception in 1896, to the Association for Women, which aimed to spread the spirit of female solidarity. She later founded the Verona section of the same Association, thus bringing to our city the battles for civil rights, beginning with the demand for the right to vote.

A lecturer and fine polemicist, she believed in the educational function of theater: she staged and performed some Greek tragedies, gaining the applause of poet Gabriele D'annunzio.

She was among the first four women to join (1907) the Literary Society, Verona's most prestigious cultural institution.

A lecturer and essayist, she was also very active on the front of working women's rights.

With Italy's entry into World War I, Eugenia set to work to improve the situation of women left alone at home with children to support. She created a women's work cooperative, a family shoe school and workshops for blind female workers.

At her death in 1930 she left substantial donations to the Literary Society and various welfare and charitable institutions, as well as a valuable legacy of thought and action. A life lived always alongside women.