Women Redefining Venice’s Waterways

For centuries Venice’s canals have been governed by explicit rules and implicit codes that kept women out of public water spaces such as gondoliering, sandolo rowing, and boatbuilding. Traditional crafts like lace-making and textile work were women-dominated, yet navigation remained a male domain. Between November 2025 and March 2026, a photographic project documented women whose livelihoods are tied to the lagoon, revealing a gradual shift in these long-standing boundaries.

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• Giorgia Boscolo – became the first woman to obtain a gondolier licence in 2010, breaking a centuries-old barrier.

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• Chiara Curto – the sole female sandolista among roughly 20 remaining practitioners.

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• Silvia Scaramuzza – the only female *maestra d’ascia* (master boatbuilder) in the remaining traditional boatyards, co-owner of a workshop opened in 2022 with Francesco Stenghel.

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• Marta Canino – founder of “Fie a Manetta,” Venice’s first motor-boat navigation school run by women, which teaches anyone, but especially women, to navigate the lagoon.

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Venice has about 440 licensed gondoliers and roughly 200 substitutes who have passed the exam but lack a licence. Women actively working as gondoliers can be counted on the fingers of two hands, though more have passed the qualification exam in recent years. Sandoli, smaller traditional boats, are now operated by only about 20 sandolisti, with a single woman among them.

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• “Girls, we need to start recognising each other and giving social value and political weight to our role in this city,” — Marta Canino

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These developments signal a quiet transformation: women are not only occupying the water but also redefining its cultural meaning in a city long perceived as immutable.

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