In 45% of farms women in top positions

More than one in four agricultural enterprises in Italy (25.8%) is headed by a female entrepreneur, and a further 18.8% have women in positions of responsibility, figures that together bring to 44.6% the number of companies in the sector in which women hold top positions.

This is what emerges from AGRIcoltura100, the multi-year initiative of Reale Mutua in collaboration with Confagricoltura dedicated to supporting the commitment of Italian farms to environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Although it confirms itself as a male-dominated sector, the research shows how Italian agriculture 'can represent an opportunity for women both in terms of their career and more generally in terms of their presence in the various levels of the workforce'.
In particular, the share of companies with female owners exceeds the national average in the North-East (26.4%) and the Centre (31.8%), while, at the level of production segment, it shows higher values in the olive growing (30.7%), wine growing (29.4%) and fruit growing (26.6%) sectors.

The percentage of these companies, the analysis goes on to highlight, nevertheless decreases with their size, going from 27.9% among companies with a turnover of less than EUR 100,000 to 19.6% among those over EUR 500,000, data in line with a more general trend in the Italian business system, in which women are more frequently at the head of smaller companies.

In the employment race, women account for at least a quarter of the workforce in 1 company 3. Analysing the share of women in the total number of new hires in the period 2022-2024, it emerges that this averages 28%, i.e. 2.1 new female employees compared to 5.3 male employees per company. If, on the other hand, we consider only those companies that have hired at least one female figure (9.4% of the total), the share of women in the total number of new hires grows to 35.3%, although it remains below the 50% threshold.