Venice, often perceived as a city frozen in time, is undergoing subtle but profound changes led by women reclaiming public spaces traditionally dominated by men. For centuries, Venice’s waterways—its main streets—have carried a hidden barrier excluding women from key maritime professions and activities. Now, women are not only preserving Venetian traditions but actively transforming them by learning to navigate motorboats, compete in regattas, build boats, and work crafts historically reserved for men.
This evolution was documented between November 2025 and March 2026 by journalist Anna Toniolo and photographer Daniela Sala, who spotlighted how women, despite the absence of formal prohibitions, have faced cultural restrictions embedded in everyday life. Their reporting reveals women breaking into roles such as gondoliers, sandolisti, boatbuilders, and navigation instructors, reshaping the city’s identity through these maritime traditions.
Breaking Centuries-Old Maritime Gender Barriers
Giorgia Boscolo became Venice’s first licensed female gondolier in 2010, a milestone that challenged gender norms in a profession traditionally occupied by men. While licensed female gondoliers remain few—estimated to number fewer than twenty among roughly 440 licensed practitioners—the number of women passing qualification exams has increased in recent years.
Similarly, the sandolista profession, involving the rowing of a traditional flat-bottomed Venetian boat called the sandolo, currently includes only one practicing female: Chiara Curto. With around 20 sandolisti left, her presence highlights a rare female footprint in this declining but vital lagoon craft.
Women Leading in Boatbuilding and Navigation
Silvia Scaramuzza is noted as the only female maestra d’ascia, or master boatbuilder, working in Venice’s remaining traditional boatyards, known as squeri. Her work exemplifies how women are entering spaces historically dominated by men, preserving skills while innovating in boat construction.
In 2020, Marta Canino founded “Fie a Manetta”—the first and only motorboat navigation school in Venice operated by women and open to all. This school confronts the male-dominated culture of maritime navigation, encouraging recognition and social value for women’s roles in Venice’s aquatic public life.
Reclaiming Venice’s Public Space Through Tradition
Venice’s transformation is marked not only by environmental and tourism pressures but also by this quiet cultural shift. Waterways, the city’s streets, have been symbolic public spaces where women historically faced exclusion. By entering professions such as gondoliering, sandoliering, boatbuilding, and navigation instruction, women are actively redefining what public space means in Venice.
These changes do not merely add women’s presence on the water but alter the perception and practice of maritime traditions. This ongoing progression highlights how heritage and innovation combine to create a new chapter in Venice’s story, challenging assumptions of immobility and timelessness amidst a city vulnerable to rising tides and social change.
