Companies, only 24% of CEOs and 32% of managers are women

Tasso di occupazione per genere (15-64 anni)

Dati 2009 vs 2023 (quote percentuali)

Elaborazione su dati eurostat

The ballast on women's shoulders remains the burden of care work . The ratio of time spent by women aged 25 to 44 on family work to time spent on it by both partners has steadily decreased from 2014 to 2021, from 67 to 62.6. But the fact remains that the burden remains more on women in couples, especially in the presence of children.

Asimmetria lavoro familiare

Rapporto lavori di cura uomini e donne (25-44 anni)

The world of work in Italy does not yet reflect the educational preparation and training of the female component. In 2021, the female share of university graduates was 57.2 per cent, with important peaks in some regions such as Valle d'Aosta (74 per cent) and Sadegna (63.5 per cent). The study highlights how particularly interesting it is to note that the regions on the Adriatic-Ionian coast have an average percentage of female graduates: Abruzzo (61.8%), Sicily (61.7%), Basilicata and Apulia (61.5%), Molise (61.4%) and Marche (61.2%).

Quote femminili di laureate nel 2021

Spaccato per regione

Dati Istat

While the number of graduates increased almost steadily between 2007 and 2021, the percentage share of female graduates (out of the total number of women residents in our country) went through different phases of growth and decline. After an increase between 2008 and 2014 when it exceeded 59%, the share of female graduates decreased to a low of 56.8% in 2020. The latest figure at the end of 2021 shows an increase of 4 tenths of a percentage point to 57.2%.

The gap is particularly heavy at the expense of women, however, in Stem subjects, which are also the ones that open the doors to tomorrow's jobs: in 2022, 23.8% of young adults with a tertiary degree will have a degree in science and technology subject areas. The proportion rises to 34.5% among men (one in three graduates) and falls to 16.6% among women (one in six graduates). A gap that is reflected in the world of work, where women are still mostly employed in care work.

If there is no correspondence between the preparation and training of women and their participation in the labour market, there is even less correspondence between their skills and the pay, so much so that the gender pay gap continues to persist in all spheres even if it is more attenuated in the public sphere than in the private one.

The report points out that in 2014 the gross wage of Italian male employees was € 11.9 per hour, € 1.1 more than the median wage of female employees (€ 10.8 per hour). Since then, the wage gap has remained almost unchanged as shown by the 2021 data: women, according to the latest available ISTAT data, receive a wage with a median value of € 11.4/hr, while the male gender earns up to € 12.5/hr.

Retribuzione lorda oraria

Dati relativi ai lavoratori dipendenti, valori in euro

Istat

The size of the gap differs according to the Ateco sectors to which the workers belong, as the study points out: 'In Italy, the "finance and insurance" sector is the sector in which, on average, employees enjoy a higher salary and is the one in which (after the mining and quarrying sector) the widest wage gap between men and women is recorded'.

Gender pay gap per settori

Dati mediani in euro

Istat

The topic is also on the oagenda of the boards of directors of both listed and unlisted companies. On the other hand, there is no shortage of studies that have shown that greater diversity, not only in terms of gender, also has positive effects on the balance sheet. According to the Boston Consulting Group, for example, diversity is also a 'bargain': companies with at least three female executives have a median ROE increase of 11 percentage points over five years compared to companies without female executives. And companies with at least 30% female executives have a 15% increase in profitability compared to those without female executives. It only takes one more woman in leadership to increase a company's performance by 8 to 13 basis points.

"Never before have we had such an unprecedented opportunity to build more resilient, gender-equitable economies by investing in inclusive workplaces, creating more equitable care systems, promoting the rise of women to leadership positions, applying a gender lens to retraining and redeployment, and incorporating gender equality into the future of work. Gender-sensitive recovery strategies will be key to making up lost ground to prevent long-term scarring in the labour market. In the occupational sphere, the issue of inclusiveness and, in particular, the gender gap, as we have seen, are still predominant,' the report states.

Why do we continue to delve into gender studies in economics? The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) emphasised in the Gender Equality Index 2022 how decreasing the gender gap would have a positive impact on the economy, in particular stating that more gender equality would lead to an increase of the EU's GDP per capita from 6.1% to 9.6% by 2050.

"The work of the future," the report emphasises, "involves very specific knowledge that is predominantly projected towards technology and innovation, but, despite the fact that women's level of education is very high, there is no adequate correspondence at the professional level and even less so from a gender pay gap perspective. Therefore, it is clear that putting women at the centre of economies will fundamentally lead to better and more sustainable development outcomes for all, support faster recovery and put us back on track to rebuild more equitable, inclusive and resilient societies'.

Not only employees. The growth of the female component is also desirable among entrepreneurs and startuppers, although at the moment the data is still bleak not only in Italy, but internationally. The global average of female startuppers is close to 5% and in the US it reaches 5.8%, in Europe it is even below the threshold with 3.8% (EU Commission data, 2023) of all exits for companies founded after 2000. The real crux is once again to be found in education: data on gender parity in the area of purely technological skills, which are among the top 10 skills for which strong growth is expected, are the weak point with digital literacy standing at a parity level of 43.7% and knowledge on artificial intelligence and big data reaching 33.7% parity. Although the number of women choosing science faculties is increasing, female employment in these fields stands at around 30% (WEF data 2023). In non-SEM professions, on the other hand, the percentage of women employed is almost half at 49.3%.

If we look at Italy, the resources provided by the NRP for measures aimed at women or that could have positive, even indirect, repercussions in reducing the current gaps in favour of women account for more than 20 per cent of the total (about 38.5 billion in total). In addition, news comes from the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, which strengthens the new Fund for Women's Entrepreneurship (already endowed with 40 million euro) and, by including in the investments also 400 million included in the NRP, puts in place further initiatives to support projects with significant technological and innovative content. However, despite the presence of many funding opportunities and the specific objectives of the NRP, among start-ups, female-dominated enterprises grew very little from 2021 to 2023, from only 13.17% to 13.71, the report highlights.

On the other hand, e-commerce seems to be the real engine of growth for female businesses, with the number of female businesses active in the e-commerce sector accounting for 26.8% of the total. Of course, there is still a long way to go, but the awareness that this is an issue that does not concern a minority (women remain half of the Italian population) but rather the whole country can make us look at its solution from a different perspective.