8 March

Gender equality is still far away in the world of professions

Notaries, lawyers and accountants together at a conference in Rome to identify what steps need to be taken for equal opportunities between professionals and female professionals. The role of work and critical life stages for the professional development of women

7 March 2024

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Gender equality is far from being achieved even in the world of the professions, which sees an increasing presence of women that is not matched by a similar weight in terms of both role and pay. The conference organised by the National Council of Notaries and the Network for Equality association focused on what needs to be done and how to do it. Notaries, lawyers and accountants "together more than ever for this occasion", remarked the president of the National Council of Notaries, Giulio Biino, at the opening of the proceedings in the Senate library, adding that "we will be in a true equality regime the day we no longer have to hold these conferences". Biino noted, positively, that the notary profession is a "professional category that is close to parity" but he also wanted to mention violence against women, emphasising how shocking it is that the news reports a feminicide almost every day. This, he said, is 'the first, intolerable discrimination' against women, which is followed by that 'in the world of work and, when you get a job, the pay discrimination', compared to male colleagues. .

High attention of notaries, lawyers and accountants

Less optimistic about achieving parity in the profession Francesco Greco, president of the National Council of the Forensic profession, who observed that "in the world of lawyering parity is still very far, very far away". Elbano De Nuccio, president of the National Council of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts, emphasised during the proceedings the "social function of the ordinary professions" that, on this aspect too, can become a "model for society and institutions". For his part, Michele de Tavonatti, a member of the accountants' equal opportunities committee, reported that the committee had promoted a survey on these aspects, the results of which would be known at the end of March.

Women need a higher level of financial literacy. The role of work

Precisely in order to take as accurate a snapshot of reality as possible, the Adriano Ossicini foundation, together with the National College of Notaries, the National Council of Lawyers, and the National Order of Accountants, has "constructed an agreement for an Observatory on Equal Opportunities in the Ordinary Professions," announced Elisabetta Camussi, professor of Social Psychology at the Bicocca University in Milan and president of the foundation. 'We are setting out to apply a whole series of detection methods,' she added, 'that are a prelude to subsequent possibilities for training intervention'. And on the subject of training, both Marilisa Guida, head of the Adult and Working School Division of the Bank of Italy's Financial Education Service, and Linda Laura Sabbadini, who has served as director of the Istat Department and one of the 'pioneers' of statistics for gender studies, intervened.

Guida recalled that in a panorama that in Italy generally sees a low level of financial culture, women are less well prepared already as students and also 'tend to underestimate themselves'. A good level of financial culture, he noted, can 'help prevent forms of economic violence'. How to deal with the situation? The "capital bill, which introduces financial education into civic education, will lend a hand" just as it is important to intervene on the methods of teaching mathematics but, Guida stressed, the data that emerges from Bankitalia surveys is fundamental: "Work cancels out the gaps: women who participate in the labour market, whether as self-employed or employees, have the same levels" of financial culture as working men. So we need policies for entry and permanence in the labour market, as well as 'financial education programmes that take into account the specificities of women not so much in terms of content, but in method'. Guidi mentioned the financial education portal 'L'economia per tutti', on the Bank of Italy's website.

Sabbadini pointed out, among the critical issues, the fact that the 'crucial period for a career is precisely the first years of work, especially between the ages of 30 and 40, which are also the crucial years for women to have children. This coincidence of paths is an element that strongly penalises women'.

Roccella: 'Maternity and work-life balance at the Government's attention'

A topic, that of maternity and work-life balance, which is at the attention of the Government, highlighted the Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities, Eugenia Roccella, in her message of greeting at the beginning of the conference. The Executive's activities are focused on two points: "On the return of women from maternity leave and trying to facilitate everything that can lead to the evaluation of the worker not only for her presence in the company but for the achievement of objectives. The problem,' he remarked, 'is to change the cultural climate. We are asking for the cooperation of everyone, the economic world, the business world, trade unions, non-profit organisations, intermediate bodies'. And precisely in relation to collaboration with businesses, Roccella recalled two measures promoted by the government: gender certification and the corporate code of self-discipline. On the first, she announced, 'we are already at 1,500 certified companies, we have already reached the target we had set for 2026: there has been an excellent response'.

Words matter: the theme of female professions

The topic of language was also discussed during the meeting. Cecilia Robustelli, professor of Italian Linguistics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia recalled a study by the Bruno Kesserl Foundation and the Research Foundation for Public Evaluation Policies in Trento showing that the professional title declined to the feminine is associated with a penalisation in terms of image towards potential clients and colleagues for both the legal profession and the notary profession and added that "it would be an important help if the bar's continuous training also included the use of language and if the bar accepted and was the first to propose this change" in the use of terms.

Other issues discussed at the conference included that of the 'double surname', starting with the rulings of the Constitutional Court and recalling the bills on the subject currently before the Senate.