Rosa Soardi is a name that many people from Vicenza still remember, but in the majority of cases they do not remember well the period in which she lived, what her long life was like, what the personal and public spheres were, in which she was involved, what her personal peculiarities were for which she deserves to be remembered.

Certainly, she was not a leading figure in the public life of Vicenza, although she would have deserved such a title,  if her natural shyness, maybe linked to the environment and  time  in which she lived, had not somehow conditioned her.

Rosa Soardi, together with some women of the same age as her and some friends, such as Scanagatta, Socche and Girardi, represented, at least for the people who knew her, a modern and winning kind of female presence in the different public and private organizations and associations of the diverse universe of Vicenza, in a period of time considerably long and difficult, which developed immediately after World War One, and lasted until the threshold of the well-known 1968.

Many people will now remember Rosa Soardi (affectionately called Rosina by the people who knew her well), this feminine figure physically small but with a strong personality who - quietly and without outcry - was able to create the   right conditions for the entrance, participation, and success of women, first in lay Catholic associations, then in the institutional and political ones, which had traditionally been firmly kept in men's hands.

During those years, although after World War Two, it was not easy to let the women's voice and needs be heard, especially in lay and political institutions monopolised by  strong and suspicious male chauvinism, which was not ready to hold a dialogue with the other sex outside the family sphere.

Rosa opened a breach through which an increasing number of women found the possibility to succeed and rise to high office.

What was the strength of Rosa Soardi? She had become aware in advance of the fact that times were changing quickly, that the feminine universe was acquiring its own identity and that,  thanks also to the large number of its components, it only needed to be appropriately awakened and organised in order to obtain some space of its own to manage directly, without mediation of a third party.

If we examine more closely Rosa Soardi's figure, it must be agreed that she had a normal life, although not at all a calm one, since it was pervaded by a nearly "missionary" kind of activism, first in the "Azione Cattolica" (a Catholic association), where she cooperated on the education of young women, and then also in the Civil Service in which she rose to high office.

She belonged to an old family of artisans who arrived in the area of the Iseo Lake, in the Brescia territory, in the 18th century and who were broadminded in particular as concerned the social sphere. Indeed, Rosa Soardi's brother was involved both in the activities of the parish of Santo Stefano, where the best representatives of the town used to meet and be educated, and in the socio-political environment.

Rosa, who was born in Vicenza on 25 August 1896, behaved like any other girl of her age and status, that is, she studied, obtained the school-leaving certificate for primary-schoolteachers, and entered the profession of primary-schoolteacher, working for forty years, first at Lusiana (Altipiano di Asiago) before World War One, then at Longara, Campedello, and finally in the "Ferrovieri" workers' area, Vicenza.

Her job gave her financial security, since her family members were not rich. She did not get married and devoted the time which was not assigned to teching for the benefits of other people. She was a Franciscan tertiary and a sister of the "San Vincenzo" association.

Around 1920, she took office as the first diocesan president of the "Gioventù Femminile" (Young Women's Association), and participated in the first diocesan Eucharistic Congress. The "Gioventù Femminile" owes much to Rosa Soardi as for its foundation and organisation.

In 1931, she cooperated to the foundation of the alpine house "Sacro Cuore" for the Vicenza young girls in Contrà Pettinà at Tonezza del Cimone.

In 1935, she left the diocesan presidency of the "Gioventù Femminile" to devote herself to the organisation of the association on the national level.

In the same year, she established the "Sezione Insegnanti di Azione Cattolica" (teachers' branch of the Catholic association) with the approval of the bishop Monsignor Rodolfi.

In 1938, she was decorated with the cross "Pro Ecclesia et Pontefice".

After World War Two, she joined the "Democrazia Cristiana" party and became the first provincial representative of the "Movimento Femminile D.C.", contributing with her activism to the success of the "Democrazia Cristiana" in the first round of voting.

In 1951, she was elected in the Town Council of Vicenza, together with Maria Pettenuzzo, Angelina Scanagatta, and Maria Teresa Maretto, thus forming the first female delegation in Sala Bernarda (Bernarda Room).

The  mandates followed one another until 1964, and during this long period she was the Councillor for Education, and promoted the establishment of the first class of a special primary school for handicapped children.

She was also a member of the executive board of the Salvi Institute for the elderly and of the "Opera Pia Asili e Scuole Materne" of Vicenza.

In 1975, she resigned office and retired to private life.

She died in Vicenza, as quietly as she had always lived, on 26 August 1985.

Translation of a text written in Italien by the members of U3A Vicenza