Global Gender Gap, still 123 years to achieve gender equality

And it is not a question of preparation, so much so that only 29.5% of female graduates on the labour market reach top positions, despite representing 40.3% of the total workforce. The situation is not dissimilar among women with master's or bachelor's degrees, where the presence at the top stabilises at 30.7% and 30.8% respectively. "As the level of education increases, the gap between the female presence in the labour force and that in management roles widens, signalling a clear mismatch between educational success and real economic inclusion. This disparity highlights the inefficiency of current systems in fully utilising women's skills in decision-making processes and at the top of the economy," the report's authors note.

It is precisely career is another sore point in Italy: among executives only 3 out of 10 are women and last year the trend was halted with a 1.2 per cent drop, according to Linkedin data included in the report of the Global Gender Gap. Closing the picture is the wage gap, which stands at around 12% on average. As of 7 June 202, however, on this front in Europe, companies will have to comply with the EU directive on wage transparency, which introduces stringent new obligations: from indicating pay bands in job advertisements to guaranteeing employees the right to know the criteria behind their salaries, from publishing regular reports on gender pay gaps to implementing processes to mitigate gaps of more than 5%.

A legislative initiative that could help Europe take the lead as the geographical area with the fastest time to achieve parity. Currently, if at the global level the World Economic Forum indicates that it will take 123 years to reach parity, Europe comes in at 'only' 76 years second only to Latin America and the Caribbean (57 years). North America will need 89 years, while at the tail end is Central Asia with 208 years.

If women's employment is indispensable for building a more equitable society, the global sore point is political participation. The improvements since 2006 are undeniable: female ministers make up 25% compared to 12% 20 years ago and the percentage of female prime ministers rose to 33% at the end of last year from 18% in 2006. Political participation, however, is insufficient to make a concrete contribution to government strategies and visions in favour of gender equality. Also because the presence of a few women in or at the head of the executive is not enough. Take Italy: in spite of boasting the first woman prime minister in its history and 33% of women on the parliamentary benches, it scores very low on the World Economic Forum scorecard with 0.255.

'Women in Politics' is the title of the report published yesterday by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women, which shows that men outnumber women by more than three times in executive and legislative positions. As of 1 January 2025, the percentage of women heading ministries has fallen to 22.9%, down from 23.3% a year ago. The analysis shows that only nine countries, mostly in Europe, have achieved gender parity in cabinets: these are Nicaragua (64.3%), Finland (61.1%), Iceland and Liechtenstein (60%), Estonia (58.3%), Andorra, Chile, Spain and the United Kingdom (all 50%). A deterioration from the 15 countries with parity in 2024.