Women of the Mafia

Women of the Mafia dives into the Neapolitan criminal underworld of the Camorra as seen and lived by the women who inhabit it. It tells their life stories and unpacks the gender dynamics by examining their participation as active agents in the organization as leaders, managers, foot soldiers, and enablers. Felia Allum shows that these women are true partners in crime.

The author offers an innovative interdisciplinary analysis that demystifies the notion that the Camorra is a sexist, male-centric organization. She links her analysis of Camorra culture within the wider Neapolitan context to show how mothers and women act and are treated in the private sphere of the household and how the family helps explain the power women have found in the Neapolitan Camorra.

It is civil society and law enforcement agencies that continue to see the Camorra using traditional gender assumptions which render women irrelevant and lacking independent agency in the criminal underworld. In Women of the Mafia, Allum debunks these assumptions by revealing the power and influence of women in the Camorra.

Felia Allum is Professor in the department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath (UK). Her research focuses on organized crime, Italian Mafias, criminal mobility, gender and political corruption. She is the award-winning author of The Invisible Camorra.

Richly informative and meticulously documented, Allum's Women of the Mafia provides significant new empirical materials documenting the crucial roles women perform in the Camorra and their diverse forms of agency, power, and influence.

Jay Albanese, Virginia Commonwealth University:

The author has a close and continuing connection to the Naples region of Italy, and this experience and access are used to conduct insightful interviews and exhaustive archival research on the Camorra to evaluate both how women are portrayed and the parts they actually play in its operations.

Jennifer Fleetwood, Goldsmith's, University of London:

Drawing on her long-standing ethnographic presence, archival research of newspapers, law enforcement and court notes, and her interviews with women involved in Camorra, Felia Allum is able to take us close to the reality of women's involvement in the mafia.