In Italy, both the number of women in leadership positions and the female employment rate are growing, the latter at a higher rate than the male rate. Italy and the EU, however, continue to tread the path to gender equality at two different rates. This is what emerges from Rome Business School’s report “Gender Gap and Work in Italy” edited by Francesco Baldi, Lecturer of Rome Business School’s International Master’s in Finance, Massimiliano Parco, Economist, Centro Europa Ricerche and Valerio Mancini, Director of Rome Business School’s Disclosure Research Center.
In Italy, in 2023, women in top management (CEO role) rose to 24% (from 20% in 2022), as did those with roles in senior management (34% up from 30% in the previous year). Also worldwide, compared to 2022, there is an increase in the number of women in senior leadership positions (32.4 percent, up 0.5 percent), female CEOs, now at 28 percent, female CFOs (38 percent), and female COOs (25 percent). Continuing this trend, senior management positions held by women will rise to 34 percent in 2025 and 36.5 percent in 2030.
Although women make up 41.9 percent of the global workforce, by 2023, according to LinkedIn data, the presence of women in leadership positions, such as C-Suite roles, directors or vice presidents, is 32.3 percent, a gap of nearly 10 percentage points compared to men. Singapore and the Philippines (49 percent) and South Africa (41 percent) are the nations with the highest female presence at the top. As for sectors, Oil & Gas (39 percent), Healthcare (38 percent) and Financial Services (38 percent) have the highest number of women in leadership positions, while Utilities (25 percent), Transportation and Real Estate (29 percent) have the lowest percentage.
Italy went from a female employment rate of 46.2 percent in 2009 to a rate of 52.2 percent in 2023, an increase of 6.1 percentage points (EUROSTAT). Over the years 2009-2023, the male employment rate grew by only 2.5 percent. However, the European Union and Italy are traveling at quite different speeds; in fact, over the same period the EU has increased its female employment rate by as much as 9 percentage points, from 56.7 percent in 2009 to 65.7 percent in 2023. “Slower growth in Italy’s GDP relative to the EU average is one of the factors slowing and hindering the creation of new jobs for both men and women. Encouraging signs are, however, detected by the faster growth rate recorded by the female employment rate compared to the male employment rate, which increased by 15.1 percent over the 2004-2023 period,” says Francesco Baldi, among the authors.
In Italy, the male employment rate was 67.8 percent in 2009 and becomes 70.3 percent in 2023 (average of the first three quarters of 2023). So, in Italy, between 2009 and 2023, the increase in the employment rate was 2.5 percentage points for men and 6.1 percentage points for women. According to Massimiliano Parco, “The convergence toward gender equality will require in the coming years a common and responsible commitment that must involve the entire population, especially the male gender, which for too many years has been accustomed to preserving its role in society, excluding or limiting the direct participation of women.”
Taking the 2004 data instead in comparison to the third quarter of 2023, male employment stood at 70.9 percent, up 1.9 points from 2004. While still distant, over the same period, the female employment rate rose from a modest 45.4 percent in 2004 to 52.2 percent in the third quarter of 2023. This is certainly a positive figure but one that remains alarming, particularly when compared to other European powers.
Analysis shows that male workers in Italy are less educated than women. In Italy according to ISTAT data, in 2021, women graduates are 57.2 percent; interestingly, the regions on the Adriatic-Ionian coast, as well as Sardinia, have higher percentages of female graduates on average than other regions: Abruzzo (61.8 percent), Sicily (61.7 percent), Basilicata and Apulia (61.5 percent), Molise (61.4 percent) and Marche (61.2 percent).
One of the areas where the gender gap is most pronounced remains the gender pay gap, or wage disparity. The wage gap between men and women in Italy has not changed much in recent years. “Finance and STEM professions are the sectors where the largest pay gaps in favor of men are evident, with hourly wages for male employees above 2 euros per hour reaching 5 euros in financial services,” says Francesco Baldi.
Globally, the presence of women in start-ups is still limited, averaging 5 percent (EU Commission, 2023). Even in Italy, despite the funding opportunities and specific goals of the NRP, female-dominated startups have grown little, rising only from 13.17 percent to 13.71 percent from 2021 to 2023.
In entrepreneurship, it is e-commerce that emerges as the real growth engine for Italian women-owned businesses, with 26.8 percent of women-owned businesses active in this sector. Despite the increase of women in science faculties, only 30 percent of occupations in STEM (science, technology, engineering and computer science) fields are women (WEF 2023 data), while in non-STEM occupations the percentage of women employed is 49.3 percent.
According to World Economic Forum data (2023), the inclusion of women in business can increase global GDP by up to 35 percent. Looking at the EU economy, reducing the gender gap could lead to EU GDP per capita growth from 6.1 percent to 9.6 percent by 2050 (European Institute for Gender Equality). Boston Consulting Group highlights that by 2022, companies with at least 30 percent female executives experienced a 15 percent increase in profitability, and specifies that companies with at least three female executives have a median increase in ROE that is 11 percentage points higher over five years than companies without female executives. According to Valerio Mancini, “It is time for companies to change step, concretely, with respect to the gender gap issue. It is not only an issue related to equality denied, there are countless industry studies that testify how inclusion and equal opportunities̀ of women increase corporate well-being and productivitỳ. Gender equality represents something that no company should give up, not only from an ethical point of view but also from a business point of view.”