The 2021-2026 Gender Equality Strategy starts from the reduction of the male-female wage gap, goes through a boost to the employment rate and female entrepreneurship, for an increase in the pink quotas in the board of directors, but also through tax discounts for “enlightened” employers. And it establishes rewards and penalties. And a diversity manager to monitor the application of the equality legislation. The strategy illustrated in the CDM by the Minister for Equal Opportunities Elena Bonetti is one of the lines of action on which the Draghi government is committed, also for the implementation of the NRP and the reform of the Family Act. gender equality will have to be a lever to activate much more substantial resources.
The goal is to climb the ranking of gender equality
The goal is to earn five points in the Gender Equality Index of EIGE, the European Institute for Gender Equality, over the next five years. Climb the rankings to be among the top ten European countries in the next ten years. Italy is now in 14th place in Europe for gender equality, far below the European average. The document illustrating the strategy, “prepared with the contribution of central administrations, local authorities, social partners and the main associations active in the promotion of gender equality”, reads the final communiqué of the Cdm, was the subject of political and was submitted to the Unified Conference.
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To beat prejudices and an antiquated mentality
Removing inequalities will not be an easy task in a country where there is a cultural problem to beat, so many prejudices and an antiquated and male chauvinist mentality that still resists. A few small steps have been taken, but the absences of women at the top of politics, public administrations, the judiciary, companies and universities still dominate. So much so that some consider the gender gap to be a democratic vulnerability, considering that gender equality should be guaranteed by Article 3 of the Constitution. Then there is the age-old lack of social infrastructure, starting with nursery schools and an efficient welfare system. Problems that burden the family care of minors and the elderly almost exclusively on women.
For the first time a strategy for gender equality
With the new plan, Italy is equipping itself, for the first time, with a national strategy for gender equality, based on five pillars of intervention, with objectives for 2026: work, income, skills, sharing of family care burdens and leadership. A theme that of gender equality on which the country is lagging behind, lagging behind in Europe in terms of female employment. A country where one in five women still stops working after having a child. A country where the Istat data of June 2021 attest to a male employment rate of 66.9%, against the female one of 49%, with a difference of 17.9 points to be filled with strong concrete actions. Problems exacerbated by the new coronavirus pandemic: for example, in December 2020, Istat certified a decline in jobs of 0.4% compared to November, with 101 thousand fewer employees. But 98%, equal to 99 thousand units, were places lost by women. And the more children there are, the greater the gap in female and male employment rates. The new strategy will also have to go through education, given that the higher the degree held, the more women work.
Reduce the gender pay gap
The issue of the gender pay gap is fundamental, the inequality of pay between men and women which in the private sector in 2018 reached 17 per cent. Minister Bonetti aims to drop below 10 percent. An ad hoc law establishes a maximum threshold beyond which sanctions will be triggered and systems will have to be adopted to measure equal pay in the company.