Famous Italians: Lidia Poët

Lidia Poët was the first Italian woman in modern times to enter the bar association.
She played an important role in the fight for women’s rights, advocating their participation in education and public life. She contributed to the reform of the penitentiary system and laid the groundwork for cutting-edge laws for her time.

Exclusion from the bar association.

Born in the province of Turin in 1855, Lidia Poët enrolled in 1878 in the Faculty of Law at the University of Turin, where she graduated in 1881 with a thesis on the status of women in society and the right of women to vote. After passing the bar exam, she applied for membership in the bar association. Her application was accepted in August 1883, but revoked a few months later by a ruling of the Turin Court of Appeals, following much opposition.
The ruling presented legal arguments (women at that time, by law, could not participate in public offices unless special permission was given, but this was not provided for the legal profession) and stereotypes (women were said not to have the intellectual and moral strengths necessary to do the work of a lawyer and it was considered in any case inelegant for them to participate in the violent discussions that often took place in court).
The Court of Appeals decision sparked a heated debate, and many newspapers reported the story.

Lidia Poët’s fight.

Lidia appealed and fought for a long time to be able to practice her profession. Her appeals were consistently rejected, and for many years it was only possible for her to collaborate unofficially with her brother Giovanni Enrico, a lawyer and owner of a law firm.
At the end of World War I, the Italian state passed a law that allowed women to enter the legal profession; Lidia Poët was thus finally admitted to the bar association in 1920, at the age of 65, becoming the first woman in Italy to be enrolled.
She died in 1949 and was buried in her hometown.
In 2021 they dedicated a memorial to her in the Palace of Justice in Turin.

Lidia Poët’s contributions to Italian legislation.

Lidia Poët was a great advocate of women’s suffrage and fought for the emancipation of women, defending their right to study and work. She directed the work of the legal section of the National Council of Italian Women and participated in the discussion and initial drafting of groundbreaking legal principles that did not become part of Italian law until decades later, such as divorce, the right to vote and the equalization of legitimate and illegitimate children.
She participated as a delegate in international conferences on prison legislation, where the rights of prisoners were discussed. For this purpose, she traveled to Russia and France, where she was awarded a special honor for her contributions.

Netflix and Lidia Poët.

Netflix recently produced a TV miniseries, titled “The law according to Lidia Poët”, inspired by her life. Aside from the infamous ruling of the Court of Appeals, the stories in each episode are fictional, and the TV Lidia (an uninhibited, out-of-the-box woman of the time, with many love affairs) does not correspond much to the real Lidia (a shy, serious, and reserved person). Some references to her life are also inaccurate (such as the fact that her brother was married or that her father opposed her studies).
Nevertheless, the series is well written and does an excellent job of bringing the story of this remarkable woman to the screen and capturing the spirit of the era and the difficulties Lidia Poët faced in a field dominated at that time exclusively by men.
Particularly noteworthy are the costumes and sets, for their elegance and attention to detail, as well as the historical reconstruction of the main meeting places of the society of the time. The images thus transport us very pleasantly to a noble and very atmospheric Turin, where it is possible to perceive that great changes are now at hand.
The series is in Italian, with English subtitles, so perfect for students of all levels who want to practice their listening comprehension skills (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyIeHa0zvXM).

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