The numbers of gender inequality

Companies

Gender equality, certifications over 12,000 enterprises

Among the certified companies, there is a significant presence of small (41.9%) and medium-sized companies (30.7%)

by Anna Zavaritt

8 March 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Registered progress
Persistent criticalities

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Over 12,300 the number of Italian companies that have obtained gender equality certification, with a significant presence of small (41.9%) and medium-sized companies (30.7%). The phenomenon also increasingly involves sectors traditionally less associated with diversity policies, such as construction (27.18%) and manufacturing (13.25%), a sign of the progressive spread of the standard in the production fabric.

Introduced in 2022, the PdR 125:2022 certification brought a national system based on objective and measurable indicators to Italy for the first time, marking the end of the so-called 'pink stickers' season and inaugurating a change of pace in corporate inclusion policies.

The game is now played on the consolidation of results. If the 1% contribution exemption, up to a maximum of EUR 50,000 per company, has become structural, there remains the unknown factor of the end of the NRP incentives for SMEs, which have so far borne the costs of consultancy and certification and which will end in June.

Progress recorded

Certification has experienced exponential growth. From 113 companies that passed the audit in 2022, this has risen to12,349 certified companies (as of 27 January 2026), according to information provided to Il Sole 24 Ore by the Equal Opportunities Department.

In detail, there were 113 new certifications in 2022, 2,079 in 2023, 5,081 in 2024 and 5,079 in 2025. The data were processed by the Department on the basis of an extraction carried out by Sogei, the Department's technology partner, and refer to legal entities and not to individual operating sites.

On a sample of enterprises provided by the Department for Family Policies, a strong territorial concentration also emerges: Lombardy leads the regional ranking with 21.53% of the national total - also thanks to additional funds allocated through Unioncamere - followed by Lazio (17.50%) and Campania (11.89%).

Persistent criticalities

Despite progress, some critical issues remain. An analysis of a sample of 5,146 certified companies (data as of January 2026) reveals areas where companies struggle most to reach the required standards. Fewer than one in two companies (42.2%) - among those for which the standards are applicable - have at least one-third of their board of directors composed of women.

On the managerial front, too, there is still significant room for improvement: only 26.2 per cent of companies reach the minimum threshold of female managers required for certification, defined by PdR 125:2022 on the basis of company size and business sector.

Another crucial aspect concerns the use of parental leave by fathers. Only a few days after the rejection of the proposed law to extend compulsory paternity leave, data show that less than a third of organisations (27.4%) - among those for which this parameter is a necessary condition for certification - manage to meet it.

In the meantime, while the transposition scheme of the EU Directive 2023/970 on wage transparency is being examined by parliamentary committees, data show that 67.3 per cent of certified companies have achieved the required score for pay equity. It is true that the directive will introduce stricter parameters - with a pay gap of less than 5 per cent - but already certified companies start from a position of competitive advantage, thanks to the collection and monitoring of data already undertaken as part of the certification process.

In summary, PdR 125:2022 has successfully exceeded the targets set by the NRP and has become for many companies not only a tool for social equity, but also for organisational efficiency. The next challenge will be to find new forms of financing to support SMEs on this path and, from a sustainability perspective, to increasingly integrate gender equality analysis along the entire supply chain.