Women and work, the provisions of the Constitution and the benefits in terms of development and quality of life
It is necessary to insist on the importance of women in work and the decisive elimination of gender inequalities if we truly want to build better economic and social development in Italy. This is true for the sake of the Constitution but also for the values and interests of the country and for the future of the coming generation. These views were expressed by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and former Prime Minister and ECB (European Central Bank) President Mario Draghi. In the country which is growing little and badly and undergoing an increasingly chilly “demographic winter”, their speeches at the end of last week had the merit of directing public discourse to one of the essential issues to which politics and economics should devote the utmost attention.
Let’s start with Mattarella. In a message sent to the “Il tempo delle donne” (the time of women) event organised, as every year, by Corriere della Sera, the President recalled that “work is an engine of social and economic growth” and “our country, like others, cannot afford to forego the contribution of women, who are an indispensable factor.” The gap of almost 20% between male and female employment is “a critical point” that needs to be reduced further and further. And if work also means “freedom, dignity and liberation”, it is necessary to “respect the rights of equality and parity envisaged in the Constitution” also in labour relations.
It is therefore necessary to break down “obstacles and inequalities”, to finally overcome “barriers” to access, salaries, careers and senior positions, which lead to “unacceptable and hateful discrimination: dismissals, forced signing of undated resignation letters, undue pressure, even forms of stalking and violence, physical and psychological”. With respect to obstacles, Mattarella indicated those that “make it difficult to reconcile employment and looking after a family”. The focus is on the coming generation: “In order to try to curb demographic impoverishment but also to meet the legitimate desires of young couples, it will be increasingly necessary to strive for better management of services, to balance time at work, for a stronger culture of supporting families.”
Mario Draghi too referred to the fundamental law that guides the Republic: “Whoever pays women less is acting against the Constitution.” It’s a strong statement, which directly calls upon the world of business and the professions and which also calls upon the government, parliament, political forces and public administrations to do more decisively and more effectively what is needed to combat those “barriers” and “discriminations” that Mattarella mentions.
Draghi recalled how Italy is “far, too far behind” in gender equality. He insisted that “equality is not enacted by decree; the conditions for it need to be built”. He also included the necessary political decisions for greater participation of women in work in the strategy for revitalising industrial and innovation policy set out in the European “Competitiveness Report” presented recently in Brussels.
The appeal to the Constitution is highly appropriate. And it is worth recalling the three articles to which reference should be made: 3, 31 and 37.
The most direct is Article 37, which states that “a working woman has the same rights and, for equal work, the same remuneration as a working man” and adds: “Working conditions must allow the essential function of the family to be fulfilled and ensure appropriate special protection for children.” The broader Article 31 states that “the Republic facilitates, by means of economic measures and other provisions, the formation of families and the fulfilment of related tasks, with particular regard to large families. It protects maternity, childhood and youth, promoting the necessary institutions for this purpose.” And Article 3 is the general framework for these indications: “It is the task of the Republic to remove those obstacles of an economic and social nature which, by effectively limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organisation of the country.”
The experience of each one of us and a reading of recent history tell us that many steps forward have been taken since the approval of the Constitution to the present day. But it also confirms that those fundamental provisions are still far from having been fully and satisfactorily implemented, to the extent that two personalities of great intellectual and political weight and cultural and intellectual rigour, Mattarella and Draghi, rightly feel the need to remind us of its requirement.
These rules are broken by institutions and companies, as well as by many individuals, Simonetta Sciandivasci stresses in La Stampa (14 September).
Let’s look at some data, so we can understand better. According to ISTAT, the female employment rate was 52.7%, an improvement on the 51.9% of the same period last year. But it was still well below that of men, at 70.4% in 2024 and 69.4% in 2023, a gap of 18 points, much wider than the EU average of 10%. It’s a gender gap that continues to position us in the last places in Europe and has a negative impact on the overall performance of the Italian economy: “If our female employment rate were to reach the European average, GDP would grow by 7.4%,” noted economist Azzurra Rinaldi, director of the School of Gender Economics at Rome’s “La Sapienza” University, during “Il tempo delle donne” (Corriere della Sera, 14 September).
“Looking at the female employment rate, we have made enormous progress in the last two years. And the path along which we should move forward is clear,” says Minister of the Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti. Economist and expert on welfare and social issues Maurizio Ferrera, however, insists in an editorial in Corriere della Sera (16 September): “Women and rights: long delays to equality remain”. He notes that an awareness of how women’s employment benefits the economy is taking root among the coming generation above all, but also that government, institutions and parties, across political divides – each in their own way and for different reasons – are struggling to translate this idea into concrete policy decisions and measures.
It’s not a case of bonuses or subsidies, but of economic and social policy measures related to incomes, career opportunities and salaries, services, the home and work–life balance prospects for both mothers and fathers. More generally, it’s about truly rebuilding confidence in the future.
There is yet another aspect to insist on: the positive relationship between female employment and the demographic situation: “The fertility rate increases where women work the most,” argues Maria Rita Testa, professor of Demography at Luiss University (IlSole24Ore, 5 September), illustrating how those rates are higher than the national average (1.2%, among the lowest in the EU, with an average of 1.46%) in areas such as the autonomous provinces of Bolzano and Trento and Emilia Romagna (1.56%, 1.28% and 1.22% respectively) where female employment amounts to 69.3%, 64.5% and 64.4%. It’s not that one necessarily causes the other, of course, but it points a way forward, the paths of quality of life and work, efficient services and a confident outlook, combining “employment, education and welfare policies, with a concerted effort to create a working environment in which women achieve their full professional potential without giving up their role as mothers in families”.
(foto Getty Images)
It is necessary to insist on the importance of women in work and the decisive elimination of gender inequalities if we truly want to build better economic and social development in Italy. This is true for the sake of the Constitution but also for the values and interests of the country and for the future of the coming generation. These views were expressed by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and former Prime Minister and ECB (European Central Bank) President Mario Draghi. In the country which is growing little and badly and undergoing an increasingly chilly “demographic winter”, their speeches at the end of last week had the merit of directing public discourse to one of the essential issues to which politics and economics should devote the utmost attention.
Let’s start with Mattarella. In a message sent to the “Il tempo delle donne” (the time of women) event organised, as every year, by Corriere della Sera, the President recalled that “work is an engine of social and economic growth” and “our country, like others, cannot afford to forego the contribution of women, who are an indispensable factor.” The gap of almost 20% between male and female employment is “a critical point” that needs to be reduced further and further. And if work also means “freedom, dignity and liberation”, it is necessary to “respect the rights of equality and parity envisaged in the Constitution” also in labour relations.
It is therefore necessary to break down “obstacles and inequalities”, to finally overcome “barriers” to access, salaries, careers and senior positions, which lead to “unacceptable and hateful discrimination: dismissals, forced signing of undated resignation letters, undue pressure, even forms of stalking and violence, physical and psychological”. With respect to obstacles, Mattarella indicated those that “make it difficult to reconcile employment and looking after a family”. The focus is on the coming generation: “In order to try to curb demographic impoverishment but also to meet the legitimate desires of young couples, it will be increasingly necessary to strive for better management of services, to balance time at work, for a stronger culture of supporting families.”
Mario Draghi too referred to the fundamental law that guides the Republic: “Whoever pays women less is acting against the Constitution.” It’s a strong statement, which directly calls upon the world of business and the professions and which also calls upon the government, parliament, political forces and public administrations to do more decisively and more effectively what is needed to combat those “barriers” and “discriminations” that Mattarella mentions.
Draghi recalled how Italy is “far, too far behind” in gender equality. He insisted that “equality is not enacted by decree; the conditions for it need to be built”. He also included the necessary political decisions for greater participation of women in work in the strategy for revitalising industrial and innovation policy set out in the European “Competitiveness Report” presented recently in Brussels.
The appeal to the Constitution is highly appropriate. And it is worth recalling the three articles to which reference should be made: 3, 31 and 37.
The most direct is Article 37, which states that “a working woman has the same rights and, for equal work, the same remuneration as a working man” and adds: “Working conditions must allow the essential function of the family to be fulfilled and ensure appropriate special protection for children.” The broader Article 31 states that “the Republic facilitates, by means of economic measures and other provisions, the formation of families and the fulfilment of related tasks, with particular regard to large families. It protects maternity, childhood and youth, promoting the necessary institutions for this purpose.” And Article 3 is the general framework for these indications: “It is the task of the Republic to remove those obstacles of an economic and social nature which, by effectively limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organisation of the country.”
The experience of each one of us and a reading of recent history tell us that many steps forward have been taken since the approval of the Constitution to the present day. But it also confirms that those fundamental provisions are still far from having been fully and satisfactorily implemented, to the extent that two personalities of great intellectual and political weight and cultural and intellectual rigour, Mattarella and Draghi, rightly feel the need to remind us of its requirement.
These rules are broken by institutions and companies, as well as by many individuals, Simonetta Sciandivasci stresses in La Stampa (14 September).
Let’s look at some data, so we can understand better. According to ISTAT, the female employment rate was 52.7%, an improvement on the 51.9% of the same period last year. But it was still well below that of men, at 70.4% in 2024 and 69.4% in 2023, a gap of 18 points, much wider than the EU average of 10%. It’s a gender gap that continues to position us in the last places in Europe and has a negative impact on the overall performance of the Italian economy: “If our female employment rate were to reach the European average, GDP would grow by 7.4%,” noted economist Azzurra Rinaldi, director of the School of Gender Economics at Rome’s “La Sapienza” University, during “Il tempo delle donne” (Corriere della Sera, 14 September).
“Looking at the female employment rate, we have made enormous progress in the last two years. And the path along which we should move forward is clear,” says Minister of the Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti. Economist and expert on welfare and social issues Maurizio Ferrera, however, insists in an editorial in Corriere della Sera (16 September): “Women and rights: long delays to equality remain”. He notes that an awareness of how women’s employment benefits the economy is taking root among the coming generation above all, but also that government, institutions and parties, across political divides – each in their own way and for different reasons – are struggling to translate this idea into concrete policy decisions and measures.
It’s not a case of bonuses or subsidies, but of economic and social policy measures related to incomes, career opportunities and salaries, services, the home and work–life balance prospects for both mothers and fathers. More generally, it’s about truly rebuilding confidence in the future.
There is yet another aspect to insist on: the positive relationship between female employment and the demographic situation: “The fertility rate increases where women work the most,” argues Maria Rita Testa, professor of Demography at Luiss University (IlSole24Ore, 5 September), illustrating how those rates are higher than the national average (1.2%, among the lowest in the EU, with an average of 1.46%) in areas such as the autonomous provinces of Bolzano and Trento and Emilia Romagna (1.56%, 1.28% and 1.22% respectively) where female employment amounts to 69.3%, 64.5% and 64.4%. It’s not that one necessarily causes the other, of course, but it points a way forward, the paths of quality of life and work, efficient services and a confident outlook, combining “employment, education and welfare policies, with a concerted effort to create a working environment in which women achieve their full professional potential without giving up their role as mothers in families”.
(foto Getty Images)