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]
