AND paradoxical but this is the reality we live in. Despite all the energy and commitment, women continue to be penalized in the job market, and especially in the STEM sector. This is what emerges from the AlmaLaurea gender report 2026presented at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. We are better, more determined, faster to complete their studies and graduate better, with higher grades. Yet five years from the laurel wreath we bring home a lower salary than our male colleagues by 250-300 euros (about 15 percent1,686 euros net compared to 1,935 for men). We never had the idea of having a child: the disadvantage would double and we could get 34.3 percent less.
Better graduates but paid 15% less than their colleagues, 34% if they have children. The AlmaLaurea report on gender (dis)equality
These are data which, unfortunately, confirm the same condition persistent disadvantage. Data that must motivate us not to let our guard down: the battle for gender equality is still a battle to be fought.
Gender segregation, between STEM subjects and care work
The report speaks of a real one “gender segregation” as regards STEM sectors (acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics): a phenomenon already evident from the pre-university phases and confirmed in academic choices. It means that “the differences they cannot be traced back to individual factors, but they reflect the cumulative effect of social and cultural conditioning who act throughout the entire training course”. In these fields, women today make up 41.1 percent of the total: a share that has been frozen since 2015. Once university is finished, finding work is easy for everyone (employability is at 91.1%). However, it is less easy for graduates (+3.7 percent unemployment compared to men). The salary? No surprise, it is lower than that of their colleagues.
The opposite is in the Education and Training sector where men are almost absent. 95 percent of graduates are women, confirming the presence of cultural and social conditioning. «It would seem that there is an early channeling of training choices, which predominantly directs women towards educational and care professions», write the AlmaLaurea experts.
Italian graduates are brighter than their colleagues but are penalized when they enter the job market (Getty Images)
Men in the wake of their family of origin
The data regarding the educational path in relation to that of the family of origin is interesting. Almost 70 percent of female graduates have non-graduate parents, compared to 62.8 percent of men. AND when parents have degrees, women follow in their footsteps less than sons (19.4 percent versus 21.8).
In particular, in those paths – such as Law and Medicine – which open to freelance, the “inheritance of the qualification” it concerns 45.2 percent of men but only 33.2 percent of women. Because of women’s lower propensity to remain in line with family traditions? Or the fact that parents invested more in boys than girls? It’s a sin to think badly but you often get it right.
