It is not a country for women. On international women’s day the data leave no doubt. Upon braking careers, lower wages, precariousness, unbalanced distribution of family responsibilities and difficult access to credit. The different studies widespread to celebrate March 8 tell of economic, working and social inequalities.
Growing employment, but with a boom of precariousness
Female occupation grew, reaching 56.5%. From 2008 to 2024 the increase is 6.4 points (INAPP data). But it remains lower than 12.6 percentage points at the average of the European Union. It is the lowest of the 27 countries. The increase was mainly driven by women over 50, whose employment rate increased by 20 points, while for young people between 25 and 34 years the growth was only 1.4%. And the gender gap is also seen in “security”. of work. Out of ten men seven have an indefinite or autonomous permanent employee with employees. Women? A quarter of the workers is found in conditions of work vulnerability: between precarious contracts, involuntary part-time and difficulties in obtaining stable positions. Just think that out of 6 million part -time contracts, almost 4 million are feminine. In addition, 15.6% of women work part-time not by choice, against 5.1% of men.
Wages: women earn 20% less than men on average
Then there is the salary chapter. In 2024 the average salary gap is 20% in ten industrial sectors on eighteen (INPS data) exceeding 30% in financial and insurance activities (32.1%) and in scientific and technical professions (35.1%). In the real estate sector, the gap reaches 39.9%. The public sector is not saved where wage differences are higher than 20% in areas such as health and university.
Motherhood and family care weighs on women
In addition to the Gender Pay Gap, motherhood weighs on the career of Italian women: 16% of workers leave work after the birth of a child, against 2.8% of men. And once they become parents? 80% of parental leave are required by women who use 14.4 million hours of parental leave per year against 2 million men. The still strongly unbalanced family load leads to an estimated annual wage gap in about 5 thousand euros.
Few women in managerial positions, in politics, in the public and in the private individual
At the head of the government there is a woman, but power in Italy remains firmly in the hands of men. According to the info.Nodes and wave report, 65% of the elective offices at the municipal and regional level are occupied by men. The mayor Donna are only 15% and among the presidents of the region there are two out of twenty. In universities, one in five rector is a woman, despite the majority of graduates and graduates both female (respectively 59.9% and 52.6%).
In the private individual only 9% of Italian family companies have a woman such as CEO or President. In the fifty major Italian companies listed on the stock exchange, only two have a woman as a managing director, and in companies controlled by the Ministry of Economy, there are six out of 34 women. The women managers in Italy are 29% against 34.8% of the European average, very far from 43.7% of Sweden. The major increase was in the tertiary sector, in particular in health and social assistance where leadership women (52.3%) according to a manager of Manageritalia.
Credit Gender Gap: access to lower credit for women
There is also a Credit Gender Gap. Only 20% of bank funding (Fabi investigation) is granted to women. An unchanged percentage compared to 2023 and is worth almost 70 billion euros in the country. To dictate this disparity are the lower female employment rate, the prevalence of women in low -salary sectors and the lower availability of assets, especially real estate. The worst regions for access to women’s credit are Campania, Puglia, Veneto, Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont and Basilicata, where the share of funding for women does not exceed 20% of the total granted.
