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title="Who are these women?"
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![](static/images/chi_si_credono.jpg)


As the workers raised their voices denouncing the inhuman levels of exhaustion provoked by the new productivity levels required by MTM, the managers at Lebole attempted to downplay the health crisis on their hands (which would see between 17% and 24% of the workers on sick leave at the same time). Seeking to shift the blame onto other factors impacting the lives of their (nearly) all-female workforce of around 3000 women, they argued that nevrosis and hysterical reactions were not due to stress and excessive workloads, but by the fact that many workers were also mothers and spouses with domestic duties beyond their working hours at the factory.

This line of reasoning was not the only front on which the Leboline had to intervene in order to challange mysoginist and patriarchal assumptions around their role as women. Within the trade unions and the communist party too, they were admired for their fierceness and yet at the same time seen with suspicion, as an anomaly to be kept in check. 

And so it would happen that, at political gatherings, Lebole workers would be greated with a sneary "Here come those (women) from Lebole...who do they think they are?" 

These exuberant groups of women and girls would appear fashionably dressed (many were capable seamstresses and would follow the latest trends), protesting loudly. Always on the brink of a wildecat strike, they would be capacle of blocking the streets of Arezzo bringing the city to a halt, wearing make-up and hiarstyles they could now afford thanks to their hard won salaries. Their attitudes and looks challenged the official views of the communist party, whose image of the 'new woman' was that of a model worker and mother, respectable and efficient in handling all of her responsibilities.
Against this limited vision, the mounting feminist movement was in the same years beginning to roar its discontent.

![](static/images/Leboline_1.jpg)
![](static/images/Leboline_2.jpg)

Many among Lebole workers went on to become expert trade unionists and party members often contributing to discussions around issues mainly impacting the lives of working class women. In the book *Quelle della Lebole. Frammenti di fabbrica tra interni e esterni*, for example, Patrizia Gabrielli highlights how the Leboline initiated important mobilizations demanding the city of Arezzo to provide kindergarten care for their children. But beyond the different topics thay tackled, there was something about the way in which Leboline practiced politics as a continuation of their private friendships that remains importantly gendered. The interstitial sociality that these women found at the factory was a source of political pleasure, breaking the solitudes of domestic lives. Birthday parties and gossips about relatioships intertwined with solidarity intiatives with other factories and the spontaneous strikes that punctuated these years. 

In this section, we wish to highlight the importance of bringing a gendered perspective to the analysis of the intersection between the automation of productive process and the history of women's struggles for emancipation. 

