Academy, politics, health: parity is far away
From the action of the Constituents, the 21 elected on 2 June '46, to the most recent, still open questions on the path of gender equality:La Costituzione è donna, the collective volume just published by Carocci to which several female lawyers have contributed, has the merit of touching on many stages of a still unfinished path. And perhaps the greatest interest lies precisely in the most recent outcomes, alongside the space given to the nine Christian Democrats, nine Communists, two Socialists and a representative of the Everyman who sat in the Assembly (who are finally mentioned in some publications). Without them our democracy would have been different.
The book focuses, among other things, on surrogacy, gender-based violence, female diplomacy, and the use of the maternal surname. It addresses the issue of women's entry into politics by recalling the principle of equal access to elected office that produced the pink quotas in the municipal and regional spheres. And citing the subsequent amendment of Article 51 of the Constitution that reinforced the idea that the Republic must promote equal opportunities for women and men as regards public offices and elected positions. However, in electoral dynamics the quota mechanism has often been circumvented by favouring the election of men and thus betraying the spirit of the law: as is evident from the numbers, parity is still a goal to be achieved.
Interesting (and discouraging) are the pages on women in universities, where progress has been made over the years, of course, but where a situation of inequality in top positions persists (in 2022, ordinary professors accounted for 26.94 per cent). In fact, stereotypes and the insufficiency of welfare instruments continue to weigh heavily, which - as in so many professional spheres - jeopardise the path of those who want to do research. A gap that is associated with the well-known problems of the university system, marked by "competitive logic and viscous co-optation", the authors observe. They do not overlook some encouraging data, such as the 55.6% of women in new enrolments, and the 57.3% of female graduates who have graduated in recent years.
Finally, the contribution dedicated to equality in health protection delves into a topic that is still little explored, yet crucial, because biological and gender differences influence the onset of diseases, the identification of treatments, and the effectiveness of drugs. In Italy, the first law on gender medicine only dates back to 2018.
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