The authors explore the complex, gendered puzzle and careers behind women's underrepresentation in public-sector organizational leadership.

Introduction; 1. Crisis in Italy, opportunity in South America: theatrical economies at the turn of the twentieth century; 2. Mocchi in South America: the Sociedad Teatral ¿talo-Argentina; 3. Mocchi in Italy: the early years of the Società Teatrale Internazionale; 4. Becoming the 'Buffalo Bill of Italian impresarios': Mocchi and La Teatral; 5. Mocchi and World War I: new challenges, new cooperations; 6. New initiatives, new controversies: Mocchi in the 1920s and 1930s; Epilogue.