Focus on equal opportunities and gender policies
Published: 2 April 2003
In February 2003, Article 51 of the Italian Constitution was amended so as to enable measures to promote a balanced gender participation in public offices and elected positions. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour organised a major conference on women and the labour market. Gender issues have thus achieved an arguably unprecedented prominence on the Italian political agenda. This feature examines the latest initiatives, the background and the latest data on women and employment.
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In February 2003, Article 51 of the Italian Constitution was amended so as to enable measures to promote a balanced gender participation in public offices and elected positions. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour organised a major conference on women and the labour market. Gender issues have thus achieved an arguably unprecedented prominence on the Italian political agenda. This feature examines the latest initiatives, the background and the latest data on women and employment.
Early 2003 has seen considerable activity on gender issues in Italy, with a major conference on women and the labour market and, most notably, a change to the Italian Constitution which enables measures to promote women's equal participation in public offices and elected positions.
Background
At present, 90% of the Italian parliament is made up of men. Women make up 52% of the electorate, but there are only 26 female senators out of 315 members of the Senate and 71 female deputies out of 650. Indeed, in terms of female representation in parliament, Italy ranks last in Europe and 69th in the world. The presence of women in other major public office is also very low: two ministers out of 22; one constitutional judge out of 15; one regional president out of 20; 66 mayors out of 835; and no ambassadors out of 22. Furthermore, the Italian labour market is characterised by widespread gender discrimination and segregation problems (see below).
The reasons cited for these long-running problems involve numerous cultural, socio-economic, demographic, structural and geographical factors. Women are still generally entrusted with the care of children and of the family in general, a position which is culturally accepted, and the services provided to support the care of children or old people in Italy are widely regarded as inadequate. At the same time, the fact that a single income is usually insufficient to support a family means that many women have to work and thus provide a second income. Many women have thus put off or abandoned having children, or have fewer children, due to their need to work. In turn, the low birth rate (less than one child per couple) and the consequent feeble flow of young people into the labour market demand a greater presence of women in the labour market.
In demographic terms, the low birth rate and the increase in the average lifetime have led to an ageing of the population. The lack of public assistance services for old people shifts the weight of this care onto women and has a negative impact on women’s employment and careers. Companies’ rigid organisational and management policies constitute structural factors which make it difficult for women to reconcile work and personal life. Finally, there is an important geographical factor in that the industrialised North and Centre of Italy provide more structured support services, even thought they may be inefficient, compared with the South which is suffering from economic stagnation, high unemployment rates, mediocre services and a culture that emphasises separate social gender roles which further discourages the participation of women in the labour market.
Women and the labour market
Women, the labour market and gender policies were examined at a major national conference organised by the Ministry of Labour on 21 February 2003 in Treviso and on 24-25 February in Lecce, at which representatives of the government, the social partners and the regions participated. The conference represented an opportunity for discussion of the latest information on women and employment. Women make up 51.4% of the Italian population but only 28% of the labour force, 38% of employment and 53% of unemployment.
Overall national employment has been increasing steadily since 1998, with much of the growth among women. Women’s employment growth is higher than men’s. However, both women’s unemployment rate and the unemployment differential between men and women remain very high: in April 2002, the male unemployment rate was 7% and the female rate 12.6%. There are significant geographical differences: the male unemployment rate in the North and Centre of the country is 3.6% while the female rate is 7.3%; while in the South and the islands the rates are 14.6% for men and 27.4% for women.
Labour market mobility, defined as moves in and out of labour market, is systematically higher among women than men. The presence of women on the labour market seems marked by the rhythm of family events, such as childbirth, the development of the family income and care of old people. Women's mobility is much higher between the ages of 30 and 39, the usual years of childbirth and child-rearing. Before the age of 30, the working profile of men and women runs in parallel. Between 30 and 39, by contrast, female mobility in and out of the labour market is almost twice as high as that of men, affecting 21.8% of women against 12.1% of men. The entry of women into the labour market shows a more marked distribution by age, with a notable share of re-entries probably taking place after maternity leave. Leaving a job on family grounds affects between 45% and 69% of women aged between 30 and 49, compared with 6%-24% of men.
Family/cultural factors in Italy also influence men’s mobility in and out of the labour market: the presence of children leads men to look for greater stability in work. For men aged between 20 and 49 the probability of leaving the labour market decreases as the number of children increases, while for women the opposite is true - see the table below.
| No of children under the age of one | Age | Men | Women |
| 0 | 20-29 | 5.9 | 7.3 |
| 30-39 | 2.0 | 4.9 | |
| 40-49 | 2.0 | 3.5 | |
| Total | 5.1 | 6.7 | |
| At least one | 20-29 | 5.0 | 13.4 |
| 30-39 | 1.1 | 9.7 | |
| 40-49 | 3.9 | 4.2 | |
| Total | 2.0 | 10.3 | |
| Total | 20-29 | 5.9 | 7.5 |
| 30-39 | 1.9 | 5.1 | |
| 40-49 | 2.0 | 3.5 | |
| total | 5.0 | 6.8 |
Source: Isfol panel on RTFL, Istat data, 2001-2.
The need to reconcile work and family life is clear from an analysis of women’s employment contracts: during the main ages of childbirth and rearing, 37% of women seek a part-time employment contract compared with 13% of men. In 2002, 16.7% of employed women had a part-time contract against 3.7% of men. Some 27.9% of women aged between 35 and 49 choose part-time work, predominantly on grounds of reconciling work and family life. Only in the 35-49 and over 50 age groups does voluntary part-time work exceed involuntary part-time work among women (32.7% against 23.1%). Moreover, it seems that this form of employment is used more in the North and Centre than in the South. In southern regions, part-time employment contracts seem to be 'imposed' by companies rather than a voluntary choice of women. Only 25.9% of southern women choose part-time work on a voluntary basis. In the North and Centre, 30.2% of women aged between 35 and 49 state that they work part time in order to deal with household workloads, compared with 15.0% of women in the South.
A full-time open-ended employment contract is, nevertheless, the predominant form of employment for women (accounting for 57.8% of female employment) followed by independent/self-employed full-time employment (18,1%) and by part-time open-ended contracts (8.9%). The figure for 'independent' employment includes 'freelance work coordinated by an employer' (collaborazioni coordinate e continuative), a form of flexible employment which is increasing in Italy, especially among women (IT0011273F). On 31 December 2001 there were about 1.9 million freelance coordinated workers, of whom 897,000 were women. In 2001, the number of women in the South of Italy working as freelance coordinated workers exceeded the number of men (229,148 against 163,924).
Marked differences persist between women's and men's wages, with pay discrimination to the detriment of women. This discrimination is accompanied by the so-called 'glass ceiling' which hinders women careers (IT0104183F) and contributes to a negative picture of women’s position in employment. Women’s incomes from work are on average 24% lower than men (according to information from Banca d’Italia). The difference between average incomes is greater at the lower and higher ends of the scale. Women's incomes differ from men's both because they are lower in absolute values and grow less: women’s average incomes flatten out around their average figure while the curve of men’s incomes grows during the working life. Women’s income from work generally stops increasing when they are about 40 years' old.
Women’s incomes from work are also linked to the family income. Men on average contribute 70% of the family income, compared with 30% for women. In low-income families, the contribution of women’s income is vital but, as the family income increases, women’s contribution tends to become marginal, reducing women’s motivation to work. The discouraging effect of the partner’s income is higher in the North and Centre, where average incomes are higher. This effect is lower when women have a high-level educational qualification, which indeed plays a key role in encouraging women’s tendency to work.
Constitutional reform
On 20 February 2003, parliament approved, almost unanimously, a change to Article 51 of the Italian Constitution in order to guarantee women an appropriate political representation, at all levels, in elected bodies bodies. Article 51 states that 'all citizens of either sex shall be eligible for public office and for elective positions on conditions of equality, according to the rules established by law.' The amendment adds to this the following sentence: 'To this end the Republic shall pass specific measures in order to promote equal chances for men and women.' This provides a constitutional basis for equal opportunities policies on political representation.
The new constitutional principle will now be applied through legislation. The first step could be changes to the electoral law, promoting the presence of women in elected posts. Parliament is currently discussing three bills imposing a minimum representation of women on electoral lists. The proposed representation of women ranges from 30% (the 'Montecchi' proposal) to one-third (the 'Amato' proposal) and 50% of the candidates (popular initiatives put forward by some women’s organisations). Such measures, which have become known as 'pink quotas' (quote rosa), could contribute to a balanced representation of women and men in elected bodies.
Gender policies
Gender polices implemented so far by Italian public institutions have a double objective, aiming to: create the cultural basis to overcome the traditional division of roles between the sexes; and give the labour market the necessary tools for both men and women to reconcile work and private life.
Up until the 1990s, gender policies were defined at national level. With the gradual decentralisation of powers (IT0212107F), regions have become the main decision-makers in terms of social and economic planning. Regions have been entrusted with the planning and implementation of general strategies for development, the training system and employment policies, with particular reference to gender policies.
Gender policies include:
equal opportunities, which are exclusively the competence of the regions;
citizens’ civil and social rights, which are the exclusive competence of the state; and
labour policies, which are mainly the competence of the regions.
Legislative interventions take two main forms: the establishment of equality bodies aimed at coordinating and controlling specific policies; and the adoption of rules aimed at encouraging women's participation in the labour market.
Equality bodies at central level, with the exception of the Ministry for Equal Opportunities, which was set up for the first time in 1996, are mainly advisory structures:
the National Commission for Equality and Equal Opportunities between Men and Women (Commissione Nazionale per la Parità e le Pari Opportunità tra Uomini e Donne) established by the Prime Minister in 1990;
the National Committee for Equality (Comitato Nazionale di Parità), established by the Minister of Labour in 1991;
the Commission for the Promotion and the Development of Women’s Entrepreneurial Activities (Commissione per la Promozione e lo Sviluppo dell’Imprenditorialità Femminile) and a related 'observatory', established by the Minister of Productive Activities in 1992; and
the Observatory on Women’s Entrepreneurial Activities in Agriculture (Osservatorio per l’Imprenditoria Femminile in Agricoltura), established by the Minister of Agriculture.
At decentralised level there are various bodies and structures for the promotion of equal opportunities. Many regions have set up Regional Committees for Equal Opportunities (Commissione Regionale per le Pari Opportunità) as advisory bodies. All regions have also appointed a Councillor for Equality (Consigliera di parità) who works in collaboration with those in the other regions through a network.
Labour market gender policies aim is to disseminate the idea that gender differences are not an obstacle to employment but rather a resource. The local social actors, including associations for the promotion of women, play a key role in promoting female employment, being rooted in local conditions. The approach is aimed at preventing problems rather than dealing with them after the event. Preventive policies seek to promote all measures which can assist women in their career, including training, vocational guidance, access to the labour market and professional development at work. Many regions have created integrated partnership structures involving public institutions and the social partners to examine problems related to women's access to the labour market, provide experimental 'refresher' courses for women, and disseminate good practices through the creation of observatories and databases.
In terms of legislation, the approach taken has changed from one mainly based on the prohibition and punishment of discriminatory behaviour to one which encourages the diversification of women’s professional choices and access to self-employment and entrepreneurial activities.
Commentary
It is not without difficulty that issues related to equal opportunities issues between women and men have finally become prominent on the Italian political agenda. The main reasons behind this development are: institutional reforms which have devolved power to local institutions; and the actions of women’s organisations which have more room for their initiatives thanks to decentralisation to local institutions and labour market reforms.
The fact that regions have legislative power on gender policies could lead, in the long run, to fragmented and heterogeneous legislation which could protect women living in one region more than those living in others. On the other hand, greater legislative decentralisation may allow local specificities to be taken into account and let the social partners play a more important role. Any lack of homogeneity could also be limited thanks to the active role of women's organisations and representative institutions set up to promote women. At present, the regional equality legislation is fairly homogeneous and based on shared principles agreed at national level. Regional regulations on active labour market policies and on the promotion of women's entrepreneurial activities seems more varied, but these issues are linked to the different economic situations of the various areas of the country.
Women's organisations have succeeded in communicating with the public institutions in a positive way thanks to the network of Councillors for Equality who operate in the various regions. This network has guaranteed visibility and political relevance for women’s action and aims to establish a significant political lobby at national level. The actions of women's associations have found a fertile ground for development thanks to reforms introduced in labour market regulation (IT0302307F) which have helped to reduce women’s unemployment rate. However, women’s participation in the labour market is still below the European average and does not meet the targets set at the Lisbon European Council in March 2000 (EU0004241F). A few provinces have a female participation rate close to the EU average but overall Italy still has a 10-percentage point gap with the EU average. This is the challenge that the institutions and social partners must face. (Domenico Paparella and Vilma Rinolfi, Cesos)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2003), Focus on equal opportunities and gender policies, article.
