Women are driving the growth of managers. The Manageritalia report on private executives notes that in the last 12 years female executives have grown by 56% and now represent 19% of the total. By narrowing the time frame and looking only at 2020, according to a reworking of INPS data, carried out by the association that represents over 38 thousand managers in the advanced tertiary and services sector, managers increase, albeit slightly (+ 0.59% to 116,126 , from 115,448 in 2019): but this growth in managerial work is due only to women, who increase by 4.9% (1031 more than in 2019) compared to the decline in men (-0.37%).
«The growth in the number of managers and executives – says Mario Mantovani, president of Manageritalia – shows how even during the pandemic, structured companies have focused on managerial skills and management to resist and prepare to seize the opportunities of their specific market in the post-pandemic. A clear sign of the need to face crises by focusing on a managerial and strategic approach capable of successfully managing even sudden transformations, reaching the point of defining those changes in business models and in the organization of work that are essential to compete ».
One in five executives is a woman
If we analyze the absolute data, however, there is still a long way to go: women, in fact, are only 19%, therefore one in five, of the total number of managers. We are therefore very far from gender equality at the managerial level, but “the fact that women have driven the growth of managers – continues Mantovani – is the confirmation of the phenomena in progress: in private management for years we have seen cohorts emerge almost exclusively men and to enter new managers who are increasingly women, chosen for training, skills and abilities. And all this finds a formidable boost in the parallel phenomenon that occurs among women who hold a managerial role in the company, who then advance their careers into managers ».
Double-digit growth in 2021
The 2021 data, relating to the tertiary sector executives who have the contract for managers of the Tertiary sector of Manageritalia, show further growth (6.2%), with women in double digits (+ 11%) compared to men (+ 6%) ). And in this case today, women managers are almost 21% of the total. Expanding the vision to the years from 2008 to 2020, it is observed that in the last 12 years, compared to a decline in managers of 2.4%, women have grown by 56.3%, while men have decreased by 10. , 3%. A phenomenon that can be explained by the greater presence of women in the younger group of executives (33% among the under 35s) and among middle managers. In these cases, therefore, the “pink quota” affects the processes of generational change.
The pinkest province is Milan
From the analysis of regional data, the growth of executives in the last year is highest in Basilicata (+ 5.2%), followed by Umbria (+ 3.5%), Sardinia (+ 2.8%) and Lombardy (+ 1.5%). Female managers have grown in all regions, except Valle d’Aosta, Friuli Venezia-Giulia and Molise. At the sectoral level, the health care sectors (+ 8.6%), information and communication services (4.7%), professional, scientific and technical activities (4%) and real estate activities (3.7%) are growing above all. At a territorial level, the “pink” provinces are Milan, where 8,705 women managers work, followed by Rome (4,405) and Turin (1,132). In the first ten places in terms of the number of female executives there are only provinces in the north, namely Bologna, Brescia, Verona, Varese, Bergamo, Florence, Genoa. “The pursuit of women managers towards equal opportunities in covering top positions must also extend to the remuneration field – interprets Luisa Quarta, coordinator of the Women Manager Group of the federation – on which we hope the recent law will affect, also in terms of cultural change on the gender pay gap to which Manageritalia and its Women Group have made a strong contribution. This is only the first step to achieve concrete results that extend to all women, and lead to a world of work where merit prevails and to a society that favors female work “.