Netflix’s latest smash series is The Law According to Lidia Poët, an Italian mystery-thriller set in 1883 in Turin. At the time, Italy was just over 20 years into being a nation-state (it unified in 1861) and was ruled by King Victor Emmanuel II.
Women were 62 years away from full suffrage – 42 from being able to vote in local elections. Female students had only been permitted to attend universities 11 years previously. Yet in this traditional and male-dominated society, Lidia Poët achieved the distinction of becoming the country’s the first woman lawyer. Then, not long after she started practising, she was suspended.
