Land words are important. For example, those that can and should be used for define at European level what a female enterprise is. This is a fundamental step for be able to break down legislative and financial obstacles which still hold women back today and prevent them from peacefully getting involved in the professional and work world. Hence the initiative Start WE up – Let’s ignite female entrepreneurshipthe project of a single legislative proposal, promoted by Confimi Industry Women’s Group and from The Contemporarieswhich was presented yesterday, Tuesday 23 January, in Brussels.
What is a women’s business? The Start We Up Manifesto has arrived in Brussels
Sponsored by Unioncamere and the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy and the result of a long discussion with associations of businesses, professionals, economists, academics, policy experts of gender, communicators and politics, Start WE Up is also a Manifest. A document that collects a series of concrete proposals to support gender equality and the fulfillment of all people in every sphere of life.
While the directive approved by the European Parliament on gender equality provides for a fixed quota on the boards of listed companies by July 2026, there are still no definitions for a proposal for a single European law on women-owned businesses.
The definition of female enterprise in Italy
And this is a problem for Italian women’s businesses. In our country, over 1 million and 300 thousand entities, just over 1 in 5 (22%) according to Unioncamere data. But there could be many more. LThe definition of female enterprise is in fact fixed by Law 215/92. Law according to which a cooperative company and a partnership, made up of no less than 60% by women and a joint-stock company whose shareholdings belong to no less than 2/3 to women and whose management bodies are considered to be women’s businesses administration are made up of at least 2/3 of women.
A definition that clashes with the productive and economic reality of our country made up of 92% of SMEs that are mostly family-run, companies and industries that are handed down from generation to generation, without distinction to daughters and sons.
The production reality of our country sees women at the forefront
These percentages are penalizing, hence the Confimi survey on the presence of women in companies. It was found that 81% of partnerships have female partners and in just over one company in two (54%) the partners hold the role of sole director or president. But there’s more: in 9 out of 10 companies women hold top roles. Administrative managers (41%), sales managers (22%), acquisition managers (22%), marketing and HR managers (15%). Similar situation also for joint-stock companies.
Numbers that give rise to hope. Yet, in relation to the current law, only 14% of manufacturing companies could be defined as “pink”.
We need a law for female entrepreneurship
Therefore the Start We Up Manifesto is «the first piece for the creation of a law», underlined the president of the Women Entrepreneurs Group of Confimi Industria, Vincenza Frasca: «Female entrepreneurship is at the center of our European Union, we believe that Parliament is an authoritative persuader for the approval of a specific resolution».
Also because, as he explained Pina Picierno, Vice President of the European Parliamenton the occasion of the presentation of the manifesto, «the elimination of gender inequality would also unlock an increase in European GDP worth hundreds of billions of euros». Because “when women choose to fight, the direct consequence is the improvement of living conditions for the whole society”.
Gender disparity even in the most advanced countries
The Manifesto arrived in Brussels a few months before the European elections, precisely by virtue of its potential function as a bridge between the new and old legislature. «In the Single Market each country has its own definition and incentive rules, but this fragmentation undermines the concept of competition and does not facilitate the definition of good practices», wanted to remember the co-founder of Le Contemporanee, Valeria Manieri.
Even in the most advanced countries there are in fact many areas of inequality in the economic and entrepreneurial fields. For example in access to credit. This makes it necessary to have fair and new regulatory tools against gender inequalities.
Start We Up’s 6 proposals for women’s businesses
There are six proposals to strengthen female entrepreneurship at a national and European level that the ‘Start We-Up’ Manifesto puts on the table.
1. First and foremost the “unique and modern” European definition of female enterprise. A definition “useful to avoid competition problems from a European Single Market perspective”, but also to increase the ability to measure the performance of women-owned businesses and to analyze the public policies applied in individual countries.
2. Then thencentives for business creationtax breaks on labor costs and wage growth, increasing the funds available “both at national and regional level” for female entrepreneurship within the Pnrr and supporting cuts in the contribution tax wedge and the introduction of the minimum wage.
Public tenders, monitoring, services (from nurseries)
3. Start We-Up then asks criteria for access to public tenders by private companies, monitoring of Pnrr investments. With the abandonment of “solutions such as click day and systems that reward bureaucratic speed over the quality or socio-economic impact of financeable projects”.
Instead, we need a “gender monitoring of credit granted by banks and other financial institutions to new businesses started by women and started by men”.
4. On the welfare and business front, they ask more services: with virtuous public/private mechanisms. And therefore the commitment of 4.6 billion euros envisaged by the PNRR in order to reach at least 33% Of public nurseriesthe. Additional funds to finance vouchers for care and treatment services. “Minimum requirements in line with the public offer” for private structures that provide care and assistance services and support for reconciling family life with work“particularly the female one”.
The gender gap and the creation of a virtuous prototype
5. But they also have space in the manifesto the elimination of the gender gap for Internet access by 2026 and basic digital skills. As well as the increase in female employment in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector to 30 percent. Achieving 45 percent of women present on the boards of directors of companies listed companies, 40% on the boards of private and public unlisted companies and 35% in top positions.
6. Finally the question of active labor policies and self-entrepreneurship. L’concrete and long-term goal that’s exactly it to create a “prototype”: dedicated specifically to young and old women young That they want build a business, reinvent yourself, put a foot back in the job market starting from oneself and one’s propertyie ability and desire to learn new things, network, be guided by experts and experts in various sectors.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED