PFor young people, the achievement of equal opportunities, the theme of Objective 5 of the 2030 Agenda for UN sustainability, is not in question. Just chat with a handful of student representatives from de The Wisdom of Rome because it is obvious. The leitmotif of their reasoning is the same: in the future the gender issue, when it comes to opportunities, should not exist .
Female students of the La Sapienza University of Rome at work in the plaster museum, in the Faculty of Letters. Photo by Antonio Catino
«Equal opportunities are discussed today as early as elementary school, e I’m happy that the discussion deepens especially during adolescence, the most important period to raise people’s awareness» says Massimiliano Zucco, third year of chemical engineering. «Personally, I got to know this topic better last year, when the first edition of Objective 5 was organized at La Sapienza» recalls Diletta Rainone, third year of Letters and Philosophy with a specialization in Literature, Music, Entertainment. «They informed us about the different facets that concern everyone, women and men. Of course, in the past women have had fewer opportunities than men, and patterns that are difficult to deconstruct have entered our way of reasoning. Own to undermine certain automatisms, part of my university career was dedicated to gender studies through literature».
«We need a sensitivity on these issues in actions even more than in words» says Raffaele D’Alfonso del Sordo, second year of Law. “Inequality can be created in many contexts, and it is better to prevent it than to cure it”.
Among the priority areas of intervention Flaminia Lorenzelli, second year of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences with specialization Agri-food and Industrial Biotechnologies, identifies «the disparity in salaries between men and women», while Raffaele points out that «we need to use a language free from gender stereotypes since elementary school. And it must be remembered that there are geographical areas in which awareness of this type is completely absent”. “Another area of intervention concerns job offers,” Massimiliano points out. «There are still announcements that specify a particular gender for a particular assignment».
Sapienza students: “Enough with stereotypes, even for men”
Division of tasks “In certain areas, the male figure is still seen as more authoritative than the female one,” says Annateresa Lagreca, second year of Literature and Philosophy specializing in Theatre, Cinema, Media. “I come from the South and unfortunately this disparity still exists today, both in the workplace and in everyday life”.
But there are also masculine stereotypes: «During the summer I often play with the young children of my parents’ friends» says Gaetano Tommaso Lo Scalzo, known as Tony, second year of Biomedical Laboratory Techniques. «So I said to myself: “I’m almost trying to be a babysitter”. My parents replied: “No one will take you, because a male babysitter is seen as a bad guy“. In the same way, a girl cannot be a warehouse worker because she is seen as weak, when in reality there are women who are much stronger than boys: to beat me, for example, it doesn’t take much (laughs) ».
“When I tried to look for a part-time job, I turned to those where I knew they were looking for women: the babysitter, the bartender, the sales assistant, the image girl in the discos,” recalls Diletta. «A friend of mine went to offer himself as a mechanic together with a friend of mineFlaminia adds. «He was taken, she wasn’twithout verifying their respective competences”.
And Annateresa recounts: «My parents have a car company where my mother takes care of the inspections, but she is regularly treated as incompetent because she is a woman and therefore cannot understand cars. The ironic thing is that she owns the company!».
Moments of relaxation for the students of the La Sapienza University of Rome. Photo Angela Gorghine.
The theme of the division of the domestic load finds everyone in agreement on the need to collaborate. «I took care of the household chores to help my parents, who both work, and I don’t mind doing the washing machine, washing the floor or cooking» says Massimiliano. «Cleaning when one of the two cannot, or doing it together, are obligations that must regardless of gender» observes Raffaele. «With my girlfriend it already works the other way around, she does nothing at home and I work!laughs Tony. «My parents, who work together with the same shifts and hours, don’t even need to tell each other how and what to do at home» says Annateresa. «One does the shopping, the other fixes the kitchen, and they coordinate without having to give each other orders: everything works in harmony, at work and at home».
The importance of parental leave for dads
Parental leave is seen by young people as an opportunity for both men and women. «It is right that fathers too are put in a position to live with their children, because if only the woman is allowed to stay at home to take care of the child, a boundary is immediately drawn, a specific space reserved for one parental figure rather than another is circumscribed, and those mechanisms are triggered which then condition everyone to social level» affirms Diletta. “My father and I were strangers for my first five years of life because he went out at four in the morning and returned at nine in the evening to bring bread home,” Tony recalls. “Parental leave is a great way for a man to help his partner, but also to be close to his children.”
Many girls to represent the students
The possibility for women to reach positions of power is another topic of discussion. “Today the systems have expanded a little more: our Prime Minister, whether we like her ideology or not, is a woman, and this is a good sign,” Raffaele points out. He continues: «The question, however, is: Is the symbology of power enough to make a trend change? Obviously not. The problem is rooted among us citizens: if we change the way we see things in our small communities, starting with families, we can influence politics. At the same time, political choices can change society: the two things compensate each other».
«The fact that there are so many girls representing the students denotes a change of mentality» observes Maximilian. «Many of us are fascinated by representation and maybe continue this path even after university. So our generation already has a mindset set in the right way to eradicate gender inequality.”
The students of La Sapienza: “we need valid leaders to deal with”
The very concept of leadership seems to have changed a lot for these kids of the 2000s. “I don’t like following a person just because they say that one thing is just like that,” says Annateresa. “On the other hand, I appreciate that those who have relevance within society can and want to make us aware of certain topics, so that I can take the cue to positively change my life and create a better society”.
«The leader is not a boss whose words are diktats or dogmas, he is a guide, someone who puts others at ease and in a position to express themselvesotherwise there is no comparison, progress or improvement» says Diletta, who among the female characteristics useful for a leadership cites «sensitivity, tolerance and willingness to listen: qualities that can also belong to men, even if they often hide them because they it confuses sensitivity with weakness and fragility”.
“Angela Merkel in Germany and Ursula von der Leyen in Europe have already demonstrated that female leadership surpasses male leadership in terms of empathy, sensitivity and openness to dialogue,” says Tony. «If I were a leader, I wouldn’t want to drag people into doing something because I say so, but make them want to do it as much as I do.Flaminia concludes. “And I wouldn’t care if the person in front of me is a man or a woman: for me he would be a person, full stop”.
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