Ten years of policies for women: much against male violence, too little for work

Elena Bonetti agrees: those approved so far 'have been important interventions that have strengthened the legislative and operational tools to combat violence against women. These are flanked by measures such as the freedom microcredit and the freedom income, which I wanted to introduce as minister to support women's economic independence and also combat economic violence. It is a significant basis, but we need to insist on concrete implementation, coordination between institutions and the strengthening of pathways to autonomy'.

Maria Elena Boschi also speaks of implementation as 'the first challenge', recalling that the first National Anti-Violence Plan dates back to 2015 (Renzi government). Fine all the advances, up to the law "voted by all that has transformed femicide from an aggravating circumstance to an autonomous crime", but "criminal laws alone do not save women if on the one hand there is no certainty of punishment and on the other hand, above all, there is no cultural change, if prevention, training and concrete protection do not work". "We, thanks to a proposal by Lucia Annibali, have introduced the income of freedom for women victims of violence and invested heavily in the training of operators from emergency rooms to the police force," she adds.

What is missing? Moving forward, as 'in a sort of passing of the baton in a relay race to get closer to the goal'. Therefore, 'a great cultural investment, starting with schools. Yes, we need electronic bracelets, but we also need books, education, prevention. Instead, the Meloni government seems to be going in a stubbornly contrary direction. Crimes increase, penalties increase, but sexual and affective education in schools is prevented. A short-sighted attitude when it is Istat that reminds us that almost 14% of young people think that a no can mean yes. Unfortunately, families are not always able to provide young people with adequate tools and they end up 'uninformed' on the Internet. Worse still, in some cases families themselves are wrong toxic models of man-woman relationships'.

While there is debate on the fight against violence, but results are also obtained at least in terms of convergence between the political forces and the consequent production of legislation, on women's work improvements are much slower. Carfagna acknowledges this: 'I believe that on labour, services for working mothers and equal pay there is still a lot to be done. As minister of the South I introduced and financed Italy's first Lep, the one on crèches, with the obligation to open 33 places for every 100 children resident in each municipality. I am proud of this, but now its implementation must be monitored. Similarly, the new European regulations on equal pay must be used to the full to address and resolve the gender gap in pay".

"Knowing and overcoming gender gaps should be the goal of all public policies, yet the gender budget for 2024 has still not been dismissed by the Ministry of the Economy," points out Guerra, who as undersecretary at the Mef had actively promoted the drafting of the document. Crucial remains the issue of services. 'Some important steps have been taken with the nursery school plan in the NRP, which was then unfortunately scaled down. In the Lep discussion, the issue of full-time schooling should be prioritised. The implementation of the enabling act on non-self-sufficiency, another area of 'care' that otherwise weighs heavily on the shoulders of women, continues to be postponed'.

The sharing of free care work is, perhaps, the main issue. For the Dem deputy, 'it could be favoured by the introduction of the five-month 100% compulsory and equal maternity and paternity leave, proposed by the oppositions and rejected in these days in the House without any possibility of confrontation (rejected for reasons of financial coverage, ed.). The Meloni government rightly raised the coverage for three months of parental leave from 60 to 80 per cent, but did not agree to link this increase to equal use of this leave as well. Yet the Inps data released in recent days tells us that only 15 per cent of these leaves are currently taken by fathers.

Guerra admits that 'instruments in favour of hiring women should be evaluated with caution. I am in favour of the bonuses in contracts to support women's employment introduced by the NRP, which, however, were in fact cancelled out by the derogations subsequently allowed. Decontributions, on the other hand, are a double-edged sword, as they often fuel the segregation of women at work by making it possible for them to be hired cheaply in low-skilled and low-paid sectors'. The way forward, in his view, should be to 'follow up on the Pd's proposed law regulating part time, as a voluntary and reversible choice, and the whole wide field on reducing working hours for equal pay. "From a gender perspective," she says, "all the issues related to working time are crucial: the right to disconnect, the disincentive, and not as now in some sectors, the incentive to work overtime, etc. Moreover, the government's proposed way of transposing the directive on wage transparency must be totally reviewed, which, in the proposed wording, legitimises the status quo, as if the occupational categories used in public and private bargaining did not often have the connotation of rather significant indirect gender discrimination'.

Among the critical issues, there is certainly that of a fragmentation of policies for women that often prevents a unified vision. Bonetti had attempted to overcome this by launching as minister the first National Strategy for Gender Equality 2021-2026, based on five pillars: Work, Income, Skills, Time, Power. Perhaps the only attempt at a multidimensional approach to equal opportunities, from which the Family Act was born. "Unfortunately,' he says, 'we did not continue with the systemic approach we had wanted to imprint. Some implementation measures had already been set, others introduced, but the absence of truly integrated actions meant that some of the objectives were missed. The female employment rate reached historically high levels, but at the same time the wage gap increased. What is needed now is an accurate verification of the targets and, on that basis, to build a new strategy. The method - integrated approach, measurable targets, clear indicators - remains the most important innovation that we have introduced for the first time in the country's legislative system and must be maintained'.

Not least because from the commission of enquiry on demographic transition,' the MEP continues, 'it emerges clearly that women's employment and the autonomy of young people are strategic axes to counter demographic decline. The instruments for increasing women's employment - from gender equality certification for companies to educational services - must be strengthened and completed, and an organic policy for young people must be activated: qualified training, increased wages, housing autonomy. Without these conditions, freedom of choice on parenting remains only formal'.

As undersecretary at Palazzo Chigi with responsibility for equal opportunities in 2017 Boschi had chaired the first G7 Equal Opportunities meeting in Taormina, where a commitment was signed for governments to reduce the gap in women's access to employment by 25 per cent by 2025. What did we get wrong? "At Taormina,' she recalls, 'we tackled various topics, from the fight against gender violence to Stem, from women's empowerment to work-life balance. Reducing the gap in access to work between men and women by 25 per cent was not a slogan, it was a political choice. In the years of our governments, we have extended compulsory leave for fathers, expanded parental leave, cracked down on blank resignations, invested in crèches, supported corporate welfare, focused on entrepreneurship and women's employment as a lever for growth. What did not work? In subsequent years those policies were not given continuity. It would have been necessary to work for structural services, accessible nurseries throughout the country, widespread full-time schooling, effective wage parity'.

This was supposed to be the purpose, at least in its intentions on paper, of the Family Act, a measure 'born at the Leopolda', Boschi points out, and which became law (no. 32/2022) with a cross-party vote. "It held together structural measures to support the birth rate, to promote female employment and equality between women and men in the world of work," explains Boschi, who shares her regret for what she calls the 'scuttling' of the law on equal leave ("In the end, the burden of family work remains largely on the shoulders of women, whether it is to welcome a child or take care of a dependent family member") and accuses the Meloni executive of having 'put the Family Act in the drawer: so women's employment remains stuck at 53% and it is not just a statistic, it is a limit to women's freedom and Italia's competitiveness. If we want to make a turnaround, we must consider women's work a national economic priority, not a - albeit legitimate - renvendication of one party'.

The current minister Roccella's defence is well known: the delegated law on the Family Act had no financial coverage and when it was approved it was in fact an 'empty box'. The government claims to have put the family at the centre as never before, both with the billions allocated in the budget law (the last one is worth almost 1.6 billion between bonuses for working mothers and newborns and increases in the exemption on the value of the first home for Isee purposes) and with the revitalization of the Family Centres in the national programmes as territorial hubs to support parents. Until recently, these facilities had no recognised and financed function at the national level, but with the Caivano decree (Decree 123/2023) in Article 14 they were designated as responsible for digital and media literacy programmes to protect minors. An initial allocation in their favour of 28.7 million has already been approved, another 55 million were assigned to the regions with a notice last August. This is the centre-right's response to the consultatories, conceived in the 1970s as headmasters to promote the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls and progressively weakened over time. It was the Italia of the struggles for women's self-determination, but also the one in which, after peaking, the fertility rate began to fall below the replacement threshold (two children per woman). Until the current catastrophe, with the rate reaching 1.18 children per woman and the sceptre of disillusionment in Europe.

Easy recipes do not exist and it will only be seen with time whether the current strategy will bear fruit. But strengthening women at work, combating discrimination and stereotypes, means strengthening their independence. And also help them in pursuing their eventual desires for motherhood. Provided that society as a whole, beyond politics, really knows how to welcome and support mothers and the little ones, not just with words.