The Economist (20210417) by calibre

Author:calibre
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, pdf
Tags: news, The Economist
Publisher: calibre
Published: 2021-04-15T22:05:24.466000+00:00

Between 2010 and 2018, Italy’s gender-equality rating, as measured by the European Institute for Gender Equality, increased by more than ten points out of 100—the biggest rise for any EU state. Last year the institute’s index ranked Italy 13th out of the EU’s 27 countries, ahead of Portugal but well behind Spain and France. Italy has seen an increase in the number of women in top jobs, largely thanks to the introduction of quotas for female company directors (33%) and national lawmakers (40%). And the pay gap between men and women in Italy is nowadays no wider than in many other European countries.

Still, these advances mask what Francesca Bettio of the University of Siena fears is a larger problem: the limited participation of women in the labour market. Italy has the lowest female employment rate of any EU country, at 57%; and the worst in the industrialised world bar Mexico and Turkey. Italian women are also far more likely than Italian men to be employed part-time or on short-term contracts.

To some extent this reflects social attitudes, notably the view, especially prevalent in the south, that women should give up work when they first become pregnant. But such attitudes are both cause and effect of things that politicians could change, including a strikingly low level of formal child care. In Italy there are public and private places available for only 26% of children below the age of three, against more than half in both France and Spain. Mr Draghi’s government is currently debating whether to earmark part of its share of the EU’s €750bn ($895bn) post-pandemic recovery fund to increase that figure. ■

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