Girls and Women in Mines: an Invisible Path of Forced Labour in Italy

Our plain-English summary of Girls and Women in Mines: an Invisible Path of Forced Labour in Italy, by S. Salerno (La Medicina del Lavoro, 2025).

The study

• Author: S. Salerno
• Journal: La Medicina del Lavoro
• Published: 2025;116(5):17012
• Type of article: Historical article
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the largely understudied history of girls and women working in Italian mines during the 19th and 20th centuries. Giovanni Loriga authored an outstanding paper on Pneumoconiosis in 1930 at the Johannesburg Conference. By examining his sources from earlier surveys, travel records, and congressional proceedings, the research uncovers data on women and girls in slate (Liguria), asbestos (Piedmont), zinc-lead (Sardinia and Lombardy), and sulfur mines (Sicily), along with their working conditions. The research findings reveal that girls and women were integral to the mining industry throughout Italy, despite being underrepresented and relegated to specific tasks. Ultimately, the paper explores the development of protective Italian legislation, its inadequate enforcement, and suspension during World War I. The paper concludes by highlighting the ongoing global issue of girls' labour in mines, drawing a parallel between the historical situation in Italy and the contemporary reality denounced by organizations like the ILO and UNICEF.

In plain English

This article was a historical review, not a medical study of workers. Starting from a 1930 paper on pneumoconiosis in Italy by Giovanni Loriga, the author traced earlier surveys, travel accounts, congress proceedings and photographs describing girls and women in Italian mines in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These covered slate in Liguria, asbestos in Piedmont and Lombardy, zinc-lead in Sardinia and Lombardy, and sulphur in Sicily. On asbestos, the article recounted a 1908 study by Scarpa, cited by Loriga, of 30 asbestos workers (9 men and 21 women) treated in Turin from 1894 to 1906. Twenty-nine had tuberculosis and, by that account, all died in less than a year after their first medical examination. The article also described women and girls aged ten to fourteen carrying bags of about 40 kilograms of asbestos from quarries in Val Malenco. Sardinian records showed an average of 642 women in the mines in 1860-1869, of whom an average of 322 (50%) per year were girls under fourteen. A 1902 law barred women from underground mines. The author concluded that girls and women were often employed in Italian mining, especially in the nineteenth century.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Historical review of published and archival sources (surveys, travel records, congress proceedings, photographs), starting from Loriga's 1930 paper
• Who was studied: Girls and women working in Italian mines and quarries in Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Sardinia and Sicily, nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• Exposure: Mining work involving slate, asbestos, zinc-lead and sulphur ore, including carrying heavy loads. The asbestos is described only as long and short-fibre; no fiber type is named.
• Main results:
  • A 1908 study by Scarpa, cited by Loriga, covered 30 workers (9 men and 21 women) who handled asbestos in mines or weaving factories and were treated at the Turin Polyclinic from 1894 to 1906. Only one had simple catarrhal lesions. The other 29 had tuberculosis, and all died in less than a year after the first medical examination. This is a finding of the cited source, not of this article.
  • The cited Scarpa account reported tuberculosis and death within a year after the first examination
  • In the Val Malenco asbestos quarries (Lombardy), women and girls aged ten to fourteen carried bags of approximately 40 kilograms of asbestos to the valley
  • In Sardinia mines in 1860-1869, an average of 642 women (11% of all employees) were employed, of whom an average of 322 (50%) per year were girls under fourteen
  • Italy's first law on women and child labour (1902) prohibited women from working in underground mines
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that girls and women in Italy were often employed in mining work, particularly in open quarries and also underground, especially during the nineteenth century
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The sources only occasionally mentioned adverse reproductive outcomes such as miscarriage and infant mortality
  • The author stated that the lack of knowledge about this mining work needs further investigation and research

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pneumoconiosis.

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