Lea Melandri (born 1941) is an Italian feminist scholar, journalist and writer. She is one of the leading feminists in Italy and is part of the second-wave feminist movement.^[1][2] She has established various magazines and published books on feminist theory.

Melandri was born in Fusignano in 1941.^[3] She graduated from Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.^[3] Following her graduation she worked as a teacher.^[3] Next she obtained her master's degree in history from the University of Bologna.^[3] Then she continued to teach at secondary schools until her retirement in 1986.^[3]

Melandri and Elvio Fachinelli started a radical feminist journal L’erba voglio in 1971 and edited it until 1978 when it folded.^[4] Melandri established a feminist magazine, Lapis, in 1987 which existed until 1997.^[3] She published articles in Noi donne, a feminist magazine.^[5] She and other Milan-based Italian feminists, including Ciulia Alberti, Paola Melchiori and Adriana Monti, organized activities with housewives and factory workers between 1979 and 1983.^[6]

Her book L’infamia originaria was published in 1977.^[4] Her another book was translated into English under the title of Love and Violence: The Vexatious Factors of Civilization in 2019.^[4] She has also written poems.^[1] She has contributed to the daily newspaper Il manifesto, and in one of her articles she bitterly criticized Pope Benedict XVI in 2004 due to his letter containing a conservative and traditionalist view about women.^[7]

Melandri teaches at Free University for Women in Milan of which she has been the president since 2011.^[8]

Melandri is a member of the Global Information Society Watch.^[9]