Italy_SWOT Update 2009

Mariagrazia LeoneSveva MagaraggiaGiovanna Vingelli

Utrecht, 3 June 2009

STRENGHTSWEAKNESSES

1. Women's higher level of education2. Equal Opportunities Legislation (Law 125/91; Law 53/2000); Art. 51 Constitution (de iure equality AND de facto equality in access to public offices and elective bodies3. Definition of direct and indirect discrimination

1. Low level of female participation in politics. 2. New labour Policies3. Lack of gender awareness/political will4. No links with NGO's, Women's movement, Academy5. No mention of Gender Impact Assessment6. Lack of awareness on mainstreaming, implementation of sectorial policies7. Erosion of power of Equal Opportunities Machinery

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

1. Rising female presence in the labour market2. Women's higher level of education

1. Women employment rate still under the average rate in Europe2. Vertical and horizontal segregation in the labour market3. Pay-gap4. Regional differences5. Unequal distribution of family tasks and responsabilities

Horizontal and vertical

segregation

VI (1972)

VII (1976)

VIII (1979)

IX (1983)

X (1987)

XI (1992)

XII (1994)

XIII (1996)

XIV (2001)

XV (2006)

XV (2008)

0

3

6

9

12

15

18

21

24

Cam era dei Deputati

Senato della Repubblica

Leg isla tu r e

Va

lori

pe

rce

ntu

ali

Women in the Italian Parliament

% (1972-2008)

WOMEN CANDIDATES: 32,1 % . (2 points less than 2004).

Slight difference among parties

STRENGHTSWEAKNESSES

•Increasing female university enrollment and graduation•New Bill on Gender Statistics•VISPO Guidelines•New rules on retirement

Political commitment No formal network for exchange about gender

issues (no Velvet triangle) Fragmented equal opportunities interventions Gender mainstreaming has not successfully

intervened in large policy areas, in important decision-making processes

Top-down approach/technocratic process No political pressure from women'

movement/society at large No links with theoretical reflection No intersectionality

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Gender budgeting experiences

Anti-Violence Local Networks

Decentralization

ESF Impact

Local committees on equal opportunities in all public institutions have been set up

Equal Opportunities in the public debate

- Very low female participation rate to labor market• Increasing poverty among women

• Emerging new socio-economic risks (low education, low professional qualification, low-paid jobs, lone parent families, aging) with intergenerational implications

Low expenditure on services, low enrolment of young children in child-care or lacking quality of child-care

•Very inflexible working time regulations within a high hours culture Deficient parental leave regulations

•Weak need assessment and monitoring systems especially of latent needs•Increasing irregular work•Increasing discouraged female workers•Persistent asymmetries of power between genders•Organizational Culture•No flexicurity•no development of “equality mechanisms”

Femocrats

Gender Policies

Politicians

“Civil society”/wo

men’s movement/women’s studies

Access

High Low

High AustraliaThe NetherlandsNorwayDenmark

SwedenUKFranceSpain

Influence on policy making

Low GermanyUSACanada

IrelandITALY