Our project includes a collection and cataloguing of good practices aimed at initiating new forms of feminine authority and new forms of public action in politics. Within this activity a case study is foreseen, that of the Public Health sector. The survey will begin in Italy and in the partner countries, and will reach within three years an outline over all the European Union. Why have we taken on this task?

First of all, we have found it useful to contribute to the exchange of experiences and the information about women’s actions in different countries aimed to reinforce women and women’s power levels. It will result in a kind of knowledge which should not be "academical", but intends to make links and connections among women pursuing the same purpose in different contexts. This networking should contribute to strengthen actions of women and empower them.

The second, but not less important reason to project the Archive is the perceived need for reflecting upon the meaning and contents of what is generally called good practices. Maybe too often, one refers to quantitative, measurable elements, while disregarding the qualitative, less easy to be grasped elements of the problem. Thus, our work intends to collect and catalogue the good practices, starting from an essentially qualitative concept of them. We have been looking at those actions which turn out to be effective,valid, socially just, capable of affecting decision-making on a qualitative/quantitative level, in a direct/indirect manner.

A good practice is something which operates from the perspective of difference, equality and social justice and in this sense leaves a sign, produces a change, even if limited or partial, in the style of behaviour or of the relationship. A good practice actuates a "re-siting" and a rooting of a feminine-plural "we" in new forms of conflict management. This is the way of behaving which allows one to relate to another and respect each other’s differences. A good practice can initiate and give value to new forms of female authority which become visible and recognised.

They are practices in which also men can be actors at various levels. They can be performed outside and inside institutions, but also in a location in-between the inside and the outside; they can be formalised and non-formalised experiences. We consider the general area of politics, to also include a broadening out of the citizenship. Within this field, there is an in-depth study of the public health sector, concerning the institutional and/or associative dimension.