Margherita was not only the ultimate fashion icon, able to attract the attention of the people and of the media and fascinate them with her grace, her culture and her kindness; she also played a key role in shaping the process of women’s emancipation in the Italian society, combining both her duties as the queen of the Savoy House, attentive to the tradition and to the consolidated values, and the modernity of her cultural interests, her philanthropic commitment, her attention towards public education and her private passions.
As a benefactress, she was always ready to leave her ease and comfort to get to know and meet the demands of the needy. During the most tragical moments of World War I, she even transformed her residence in via Veneto in a Red Cross hospital and was there personally to help people. She was aware of the fundamental role of education and apprenticeship in the growth path of all human beings and she was particularly attentive to the women’s condition, giving her support to pedagogical institutes and educational initiatives that aimed to free the young women from economical, social and intellectual slavery, so that they could achieve their legitimate aspirations.
On the one hand, Margherita’s philanthropic patronage reinforced the stereotyped model of the woman in liberal Italy with domestic discipline as her only horizon. On the other hand, the queen represented, with her constant public presence, a model of savoir-faire, of practical intelligence, of sprit of initiative. But, especially, she opened up new possibilities, although only ideally, through her many and versatile activities, some of which being eccentric among women (just think of her passion for cars and aircraft; or her passion for mountain, with her famous ascent to the 4554 meters peak Gnifetti on Monte Rosa in 1893, where she visited the alpine shelter named after her). It is no coincidence that Sibilla Aleramo, disguised under the reassuring pseudonym Nemi, in the pages of the “Nuova Antologia” dedicated precisely to Margherita, now widowed and in the role of queen-mother, a series of participatory reviews of the publications that appeared after the assassination of Umberto I at Monza.