THEhe birth of a child is always a memorable moment for a family: however, if that newborn is a girl, while the parents celebrate her arrival, according to the most recent INPS analysesstatistical data has already prepared an invisible chronology for her. If Italy continues to walk at its current pace, that little girl will never see real equality between men and women. He won’t see her at twenty when she looks for her first job, he won’t see her at forty in the prime of her career, or even when she retires. And what’s even more serious is that not even her daughter or granddaughter will see her.
According to the INPS report, gender equality still needs 130 years
The verdict emerged from third Gender reporting it’s clear: at the current rate, real equality in Italy is a goal set in thirteen decades. It’s not just a statistic, but the sign of a nation wasting its greatest resource due to a social structure that seems to have remained stuck in the last century.
The paradox: girls have an edge
The first paradox that the report highlights it’s that Italian girls start out with an edge. In terms of education, in fact, overtaking has already occurred some time ago: female students graduate from high school and college more often and better than their male counterparts. Yet this energy mysteriously dissipates in the transition between college and career. And so, while the classrooms are full of female excellence, the top management of companies remains a male stronghold.
If a little girl were born today, her entire existence would not be enough to see a truly equal Italy. INPS data (Getty Images)
The glass ceiling remains
In fact, only a small part of managerial roles are occupied by women. And this happens because of a mechanism that penalizes merit in favor of old power dynamics. A ray of light comes from STEM careers: in these technical fields competence is so required that gender differences tend to blurbut the road to reach these faculties is still too little traveled by female students.
Lower wages than men and the hidden tax of care work
When you go down. then, in the detail of salaries, the metaphor of the little girl becomes a question of wallet. On average, a private sector worker receives a salary that is about a quarter less than that of a man. A gap that does not depend only on a different qualification, but on how time is organized.
Many women find themselves stuck in involuntary and compulsory part-time work because the market doesn’t offer them anything better or because the management of their private life doesn’t allow anything else. It’s a sort of “hidden tax” which hits hard those who work in sectors such as services or commerce, where the wage difference can become an insurmountable abyss.
Women’s unpaid work and welfare deficiencies
But why is the parity clock so slow? The answer lies in work that doesn’t get paid. In Italy, caring for children and caring for elderly family members are still considered, due to cultural inertia, an exclusively female task. The data on parental leave says it: the days required by mothers to spend with their children far exceed those of fatherscreating a professional void that is difficult to fill.
Making the situation worse is the lack of public services. In much of the country, finding a place in a nursery is a lottery-like challenge, with very few regions guaranteeing European standards. Without concrete help, many women find themselves at a crossroads: career or family. A choice that men are almost never called upon to make.
Without parity: the bill you pay at the end of your career
This series of obstacles does not disappear with old age, but promptly returns at the time of retirement. Women get to the finish line with much smaller paychecks than menthe result of the sum of a lifetime of reduced wages, periods of forced absence and sacrifices made for the care of others. It’s a closing circle: the little girl born today risks becoming a pensioner tomorrow with half her economic security compared to her peers, carrying the burden of a system that has failed to valorise her.
Changing course so as not to wait a century
While the data is stark, awareness is growing and perhaps society is starting to respond. It must be said, however, explains the INPS report, that so as not to force that little girl to wait 130 years, you don’t need small one-off bonuses. If anything, we would need a revolution in services, a different distribution of tasks in the family and, above all, a change of mentality in businesses. Only in this way will equality stop being a distant mirage and become the present of those born today.
