S.still few, often fail to grow and establish themselves and end up succumbing to (male) competition. Female businesses in Italy are a niche and, despite supporting interventions in the past, little has changed. But now there is one big news: the Women’s business fundpresented a few days ago by the Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgettiwhich offers non-repayable grants and subsidized loans. 200 million available, of which 160 from Pnrr resources, while 40 have been allocated by the 2021 budget law. Few, many? Will it finally be possible to enhance the talent of women, which would be so good for the country?
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“The purpose of the provision is to create a fertile environment for new entrepreneurs,” said Minister Giorgetti. The state lends a hand “to valid ideas, of women who get involved. There are many ready to accept the challenge ». The concessions of the Pnrr they are wide-ranging, and encourage investments in industry, crafts, services, the processing of agricultural products, trade and tourism by women-owned enterprises (cooperatives or partnerships with 60 percent women, joint-stock companies with two-thirds female board members, self-employed workers, sole proprietorships with female owners), both to start them and to develop existing ones (questions to be submitted on the Invitalia website). There will also be accompanying and training measures, such as mentoring and technical-managerial support.
It should be added that the Women’s enterprise fund is part of a package of measures of the Mise which is worth a total of 400 millionbecause facilitations already in place such as Smart & Start will be refinanced, declining them to women, to support innovative companies.
Cross-cutting priorities
The goal is also to help decrease the gap “on the female employment rate that separates Italy from the rest of Europe», As Giorgetti pointed out. The numbers are worth remembering: the European average is 68 per cent, while in Italy it is just over 50, and in the South it is much lower. The goodwill of a significant measure is therefore grafted onto a rather critical situation. “Today in Italy only 13 out of 100 start-ups are female-dominated. SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises – led by women are even fewer: 8 out of 100, according to the data of the Chambers of Commerce of 2021 »says Luciano Monti, professor of European Union Policies at the Luiss From Rome. “It basically means that female entrepreneurship is not taking off”.
The road, therefore, is long and winding. But precisely because of the initial objective difficulties, each initiative can mean a decisive step forward. If the funding of the NRP is a good thing, it should also be remembered the choice made at the start, that is, not wanting to indicate a specific strategy for either women or young people. «They have been indicated as“ transversal priorities ”, together with the South, in the sense that they fall almost everywhere» continues the professor. “For instance: if we support tourism, a sector where there are many female businesses, we indirectly help women. The same if we increase the nursery schools, even if we thus underline the traditional role of women in care ». A choice towards which Monti has some doubts: “It is thought that if the economy grows, the situation of women and young people also indirectly improves. But the pandemic has hit these two categories the mostand even the recovery for them is slower ».
The basic approach of the PNRR, on the other hand, appeals to Barbara Boschetti, professor of Administrative Law at the Catholic University of Milan and coordinator of the Recovery Lab, a research group that explores the contents of the PNRR and formulates proposals for the relaunch of Italy: ““Spreading” the measures for women across the board, in all missions, means recognizing the complexity of the women’s issue. The creative and entrepreneurial potential of women goes beyond the economy and the market, into the family, social and community dimension: here women bring an extraordinary value that the NRP promotes precisely through some support measures “scattered” in the Plan, and reforms such as the Family Act. Gender equality must be a constant of public intervention ”. In any case, Boschetti also recognizes the value of the women’s enterprise fund, which helps to “free up an extraordinary reserve of energy in favor of the entire country system”.
Times must be respected
In fact, therefore, the only measures of the NRP specific for women are precisely those of the Ministry of Economic Development. B.will they refrain from giving a push? “It depends on how the money will be spent,” replies Monti. “The novelty of the NRP is that there is a target to be respected: to finance 700 female businesses by June 2023, 2400 by 2026. There is no escape from this stringent obligation ».
A useful push not to waste time. But by helping which types of businesses? “Up to now, there has been a focus on encouraging digital investments, but our country needs innovation in many fields and women’s pragmatism could be enhanced in other sectors, not only in the financially more attractive ones. These are public funds and we must be careful to invest them in what is needed, not in what is beautiful»Adds the teacher. «Some suggestions could come by looking at the strategies that the different regions presented in Brussels, declaring what they are aiming for: Lombardy, for example, on chemistry, Lazio on culture, etc… All these funds should create a system, not build cathedrals in the desert. In any case, now we have to run to respect the times and demonstrate, in 2026, that we have supported 2,400 female businesses ”explains Monti.
According to Riccarda Zezza, CEO of Lifeedthe announcement of the Mise “is a gentle nudge, a way to help women to imagine themselves as entrepreneurs, to think “you are also this”, without giving up other identity dimensions. It seems to me an important cultural stimulus, and we know that women emerge better in challenges. Of course, alone is not enough, there is still a lot to do especially as regards the sharing of roles in the couple ».
Barbara Boschetti also intervenes on “what is missing”: «Land women can add qualitatively different energies, because they are more open to change, and they show it in daily life. They can bring society to the necessary transition, undermining the male model. We must recognize the importance of care, in the family and in the community, as long as it is no longer entirely the responsibility of women. It must be a neutral value, valid for everyone ».
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