The contribution discusses the essays included in the recent volume edited by Silvia Salvatici, “Storia delle donne nell’Italia contemporanea” (Roma, Carocci, 2022), highlighting the originality of the wealth of studies accumulated on the subject in recent decades. The text focuses on the methodological challenge proposed by the book, which interweaves national and global history and uses gender as a prism through which to renew the history of Italy from the Unification to the decades closest to our own.