She has also served in the Italian Parliament, including holding cabinet positions under Massimo D'Alema between 1998 and 2000.

[2] She was Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, visiting scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (1963–1965) and visiting associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Cruz (1980).

For the first time in Italy, the issue of sexual orientation became the subject of a specific assignment in the Ministry, in the person of Franco Grillini.

She also worked to strengthen women's representation in politics and improve female employment, including organising the first national conference on female employment in Naples in January 2000, opened by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

She has worked as a consultant for the European Office of the World Health Organization in Copenhagen and UNESCO, led the Association Italia-Razzismo and chaired the International Association for the Study of Racism (IASR), based in Amsterdam.