Women and work are light years apart in Italy. If in Europe, in general, the Gender equality continues to advance slowlyin our country the numbers are terrible, especially as regards the professional field: 20 points away from Sweden first in the ranking, almost 10 from the European average, for a total of 65.5.
This is what the European Institute for Gender Equality (Eige) says with the new report “Gender equality index 2024”, a synthesis of various European statistical surveys and measures the equality between men and women in the world, including the 27 EU member states with a score in hundredths.
According to the data, theEurope leads the regional gender gap ranking in 2024, having closed 75% of the gap in 2024, an overall improvement of +6.2 percentage points since 2006.
The top five European economies are: Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany and they all rank in the global top 10.
Europe shows modest gains in economic equality, with a slight increase of +0.4 percentage points in its Economic Participation and Opportunity score (67.8%). The region’s education gender parity score is the third highest (99.5%), globally, while health parity is stagnant. With an upward trend curve, in 2024 political equality in Europe has progressively increased to reach the highest score among all regions (36%).
The gender gap in Italy
It is true that from 2010 to today, Italy is the state that has recorded the most evident numerical improvements, with 15.9 points more, but the overall score is equal to 69.2, or almost two points below the Union average European, improved by 0.8 in the last year (half compared to the jump from 2022 to 2023). And very far from Sweden which leads the ranking with 82 points (Romania is last in line with 57.5 points)
Furthermore, our country remains below the average of 27except for the areas of “power” and “health”. The gender pay gap is very evident: only Rome has a score of 80.6, equal to a distance of 3 points from the European Union and in addition Italy stands still in last place for gender equality at work for 13 years.
Also the “career prospects” index, which measures the status contractual, advancement possibilities and the perception of job stability, highlights the Italian difficulties: with a score of 59, we only surpass Greece with its 51 points.
As for roles of “power”, Italy has recorded one of greater improvements thanks to an increase in female representation both in politics and in the Board of Directors, thanks to the legislation that provides for mandatory quotas which have favored a greater presence of women in decision-making roles. Despite this, we still have a lot to do to reach the levels of the Nordic countries.
And the wages? What are we going to do about it? Marked inequalities remain in our country: occupational “segregation” – which relegates women to traditional roles and in less remunerative sectors such as care and education – effectively limits women’s economic opportunities.
