In the early 1950s, Italy was suffering from serious unemployment<ref name="petri"/> and it was especially difficult for women to get jobs. In response to a newspaper ad seeking a secretary for an accountant's office, the two hundred women crowded the small building's staircase, hoping for an interview. They came from diverse backgrounds: fallen nobles, prostitutes seeking to change their lives, wives with unemployed husbands, and affluent daughters with not enough pension to survive.