Women work poorly, in precariousness and earn on average 25% less

A disadvantage that then has important consequences on pensions: Italian women receive a retirement pension cheque that is 44% lower than that of men. The Inps 2025 Gender Report shows that women receive around 1,000 euro per month compared to 1,486 euro for men.

Women's professional lives, often marked by discontinuities due to the burden of family care between children and elderly parents, are an uphill struggle when it comes to career advancement: managerial roles are held by women in only 21.8% of cases, while among middle managers the female gender accounts for only 33.1%. This figure indicates the persistence of cultural and organisational barriers that continue to limit women's access to top management positions.

This picture appears even more paradoxical when looking at education levels. Women account for around 60 per cent of university graduates in Italia, a share that has been growing in recent years. Women's human capital is therefore increasingly qualified and destined to increase also in professional and academic roles, as shown by the growing number of female rectors in Italian universities. However, the full recognition of this heritage requires policies and instruments capable of transforming merit into concrete opportunities.

The drive of the new generations is in any case a force that will change the overall landscape if we consider that, for example, among the members of the medical order in the 40-50 age bracket women make up 63% and among the under-30s 60%. There is also a positive trend in the top roles of private companies: the female component in management weighs 40% among those under 35 and 32% among those under 40.

Change also appears slow in the institutional and political sphere. In 2024 the female presence in Parliament stood at 33.6%, with around 70 female senators and 129 female deputies after the 2022 elections. This is progress compared to the past, but still far from a balanced representation. Grassroots politics also remains predominantly male: only 15% of municipalities are led by a woman, i.e. out of almost eight thousand municipalities, just under one in six has a mayor.

It is not just a question of representation. The economic consequences of gender inequalities are also reflected in levels of social vulnerability. Women are more exposed to the risk of poverty, especially in single-parent households: 81% of the 2.35 million single-parent families are mothers with children. A condition often linked to lower wages, discontinuous careers and disproportionate family responsibilities.

Indeed, care work remains one of the main factors of imbalance. In Italia 71% of unpaid care work is performed by women, limiting the time available for paid work, training and participation in public life. It is not surprising, therefore, that more than 70 per cent of voluntary resignations for family reasons involve female workers. In 2024, almost 61,000 parents with children up to three years old left their jobs, more than 10,000 more than in the pre-pandemic period: seven out of ten are women. Not to mention the mental burden due to family management: the invisible work of planning, organising and managing the home and family on a daily basis.

The result is a system that continues to disperse skills and reduce the country's productive potential. Reducing the gender gap in employment is not only a matter of equity, but a strategic lever for economic growth, welfare sustainability and Italia's competitiveness in the European context.