Finally, the monthly amount of the expected contribution – 400 euros per capita for up to 12 months – that’s meager to say the least. Everything, except an instrument capable of guaranteeing economic independence. Yet, as Istat recalls, 37% of women who embarked on a path of escape from violence in 2020 said they had suffered economic violence.
The women assisted by non-financially autonomous anti-violence centers – in the same year – were 60.5%. The theme of economic vulnerability, in fact, is very widespread and especially affects the youngest: the share rises to 70% for those aged between 18 and 29. The tools for economic and financial strengthening are therefore fundamental: «Generally, national and regional measures are used to combat poverty, such as the citizen’s income and the income of dignity, or to support families in difficulty, such as the bonus for the rent. However, they are limited, fragmented and inadequate tools» – denounces ActionAid.
Employment measures
In addition to income, it is essential to act on the re-entry into work and on maintaining employment. Permanently employed women, in fact, have greater economic autonomy (95%) than those who carry out occasional work (51%) or do not have a job (15.7%). To date, to promote job placement, professional training courses, traineeships, start-up activities for self-entrepreneurship have been financed in a disorganized manner, generally at the regional level, to which tax relief has been added for businesses, while to guarantee to maintain employment, compensated leave was introduced for women victims of gender-based violence and outplacement for civil servants. Let’s see them in order.
Italy has allocated approximately 34.8 million euros annually to regional administrations to carry out work reintegration activities. All of this however has highlighted wide disparities: there are Regions that have introduced specific provisions for active policies and others that instead have limited themselves to delegating orientation activities to anti-violence structures. The result, for women, was access to “variable geographies.”
To promote the start of self-employment, on the other hand, the Guarantee fund for freedom microcreditwith a loan of 3 million euros. Having only become operational in April 2022, there is currently no data available. However, as Action Aid points out, starting a business requires not only adequate managerial knowledge, but also personal skills and competences which, following the situation experienced, often need to be strengthened. For this, it would be useful to offer courses financial literacyspecialist training, tutoring services and personalized and continuous technical assistance.