Chapter 174

• I’ve always dreamed of furthering my education, because it would make me feel more complete and accomplished as a woman, and it would also make me feel more equal with the men here in the mafia, seeing as only men were allowed to further their education and be whatever they want to be… why the women were to stop at high school, and be married off to a man, and then to birth babies for the said man and that was that.
• It didn’t matter to people that we were growing and getting more advanced, it didn’t matter to them that everyone in other countries were leaving their old ways behind and making way for new things to come in, it didn’t matter that gender equality was now recognized in a lot of other countries, all they care about for here in Italy, was the fact that the man were on a higher level compared to the women. It was like a food chain, whereby the males were at a really higher part, and the female at a lower part, the females were expected to take the crumbs from the males without any question whatsoever.
• I felt powerless, I’ve always felt powerless, ever since I was a kid, ever since I understood just how this whole thing worked here in Italy, I’ve always felt powerless each time I had watched my father beat up my mother.