Lto equality regarding female employment remains a mirage: this is what the Inapp report, the National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies, confirms, from which it emerges that women make up 40% of the total number of workers in Italy compared to the now consolidated 60% of men.
Equality is a long way offdespite the incentives made available by the Government for new contracts: photography does not change and only in 40.9% of casesto stay in 2022, the company hires a womanhowever with fixed-term or temporary contracts.
Female employment, equality is a dream
The data, which can be read with a certain bitterness, show that women’s path towards full and stable employment is often a real obstacle course. Why It’s true that we often talk about brain drainbut another form of dispersion of human capital is precisely that linked to failure to valorise female employmentfor which spot interventions do not prevent gender effects, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, from continuing to penalize women’s participation.
Are incentives useful?
In the report, the researchers analyze the various “hiring bonuses” currently in force showing that of all the contracts driven by incentives, those who favor women are only four out of ten. In practice, the percentage of women hired without incentives is higher. In addition, the duration of the contracts and the reduced hours, as women usually work, have a strong gender connotation. In short, the scenario only shows a consolidated growth in temporary and discontinuous work for women which continues to cause the lack of economic independence which in turn influences life choices.
Few people hired with incentives, equality at work is a dream (Getty)
From gender pay gap to gender pension gap
But not only: for women the differences and the inequalities they continue in working life to also have negative repercussions on pensions, where the gender gap remains significant: lower wages, limited career opportunities, greater use of part time, atypical and irregular occupations, work interruptions or renunciation of employment for maternity or family care, they mean even get to the end of your “career” with low contributions and a very poor pension. On average, INPS pensioners receive a gross monthly amount that is more than 36% higher than that received by their peers. This means that the classic gender pay gap will also transform into a gender pension gap.
Italian pensioners at risk of poverty
In mature welfare states, pension systems for the protection of old age should pursue the objective of combating or preventing poverty in the so-called old age. Unfortunately, however, in this area Italy is not in a good situation at all when it comes to the pension gender gapgiven that a fifth of Italians over 65 are at risk of poverty.
More tools to support women
Considering, in fact, the “risk of poverty and social exclusion”, as defined by Eurostat, for individuals over 65 years of age, it is decidedly higher for women and not only for men in Italy (23% versus 16%) but also compared to the average figure for other women in the EU, for which the risk stops at 21%. A problem that will not be solved except with concrete, effective and prospective actions against the scarcity of tools and support services for women so that they can work with the same opportunities and, above all, the same continuity as their male colleagues.
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