A way to better understand the issue of gender equality is to analyze the differences in the distribution of leadership roles between men and women. This MiniDossier focuses on politics, businesses and labour, highlighting the changes that took place in Italy.

Gender equality. Equality between men and women is one of the constitutional principals of the Italian Republic. There are 4 articles in the Constitution that deal with the issue. Art. 3 is more general calling for equality of all citizens, while art.37 and art. 57 are more specific, and talk about working women and access to public offices. Lastly art. 117 talks about removing all obstacles to achieve full man-woman equality. Unfortunately these principles are not implemented.

Politics. In the analysis of different institutional levels we considered over 93.000 political offices, which are held by women only in 21% of circumstances. In recent years many steps forward have been taken: 30% MPs are women, and Matteo Renzi created his Government with full equality in numbers between the two genders.

Businesses. There has always been a lively debate on how effective women quotas are in increasing opportunities for women. It is very interesting to look at the number of women on boards of italian listed companies. Since Monti’s approval of a law imposing gender quotas on boards of listed companies, the number of women increased drastically, reaching 22%.

Labour. In a general context that sees some changes taking place, the real issue appears to be the work place. In Europe the situation is quite alarming: while there are more women graduates, they appear to be more unemployed and with more temporary work contracts compared to men. In all Eu Member States women earn less then men. Italian women cannot manage to cope with working and having children: for example women with three or more children in Denmark work more than women with one child in Italy (77% versus 57,8%).

MiniDossier Openpolis. “Gender Equality. Politics, bussinesses and labour” is the third number of a series of publication called “MiniDossier”. Through a data journalism approach its goal is to verify, analyze and compare data from different official sources in order to suggest different point of views and tell different stories. To contribute and help this research, it is fundamental to support openpolis through our membership campaign.

 For more info:

• MiniDossier “Gender Equality: politics, businesses and labour” (english)
• MiniDossier “Gender Equality fra Politica, Imprese e Lavoro” (italiano)
• MiniDossier: our research