Hands

March 26, 2023 2023-10-09 14:33

Hands

Craftswomanship

A Sicilian Tradition Over a Thousand Years Old

Artisanal crafts are traditions that are over 5000 years old, with their roots in ancient civilisations. While some crafts have been practiced for centuries, others are more modern and sometimes limited to specific geographic areas.
 
Men typically worked harder materials, gradually turning the profession from being a semi-servile one that it was in the pre-Christian and early Christian years into a very reputable profession.
 
Meanwhile craftswomen worked mostly out of the public eye, developing outstanding capabilities predominantly in textile handcrafts. In Sicily, textile workshops were established under Arab rule and by the twelfth century the island had become a place that produced the finest textile work as a result of its cultural heterogeneity.
 

More so now than ever before, craftswomanship offers a real chance for economic revival in Italy. Female employment is at a record high of 70% in Southern Italy, due to a lack of academic and professional training. With over two million female artisans, empowering their work is an important economic driver in the fight against unemployment.