8 March, economy and markets are the sectors that show the greatest delay in acknowledging the strength of the feminine
Women, where are we? “Educate a man and you will have educated an individual. Educate a woman and you will have educated a family”, says an English saying”. But although something is moving, the reality is still far from the intentions. Especially on the markets.
The election of Giorgia Meloni, the first female premier in Italy, the handing over of the leadership of the Democratic Party to Elly Schlein and in Europe the presidency of the EU Commission to Ursula von der Leyen as well as the female leaders of the governments of Lithuania, Estonia, Serbia, France , Finland and Moldova show that politics in the Old Continent has begun to systematically share power. Even the employment rate, although there is still a strong hiatus between men (74.8%) and women (54%) shows some encouraging signs such as the strong post-pandemic “pink” recovery which instead did not happen on the male side.
Yet it is not enough. Why the economy and the markets are the sectors that show the greatest delay in acknowledging the strength of the feminine. In fact, if we look at the main price list of Piazza Affari, we notice that no CEO is female is that the average participation of women on boards is limited to 39%. For example, Tenaris has only one place for women, while Banca Bper ranks at the top with eight women members.
In the UK by contrast, only 10 of the 350 largest listed UK companies still have all-male executive teamsjust as in America the number in the Russell 3000 is 57. In America, however, the pace at which women are getting seats on the boards of the S&P 500 slowed precipitously last year, signaling that parity is not a consolidated practice that may still be far away. The 5% increase of women on S&P 500 boards in 2022 was about half the pace of the previous two years (Bloomberg data) and last January only 41 companies, equal to about 8%of the S&P 500 are led by a female CEO.
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