Report highlights discrimination against women workers

Download article in original language : IT9905114NIT.DOC

A report drafted by the Italian Minister of Equal Opportunities and presented to the social partners in April 1999 reveals the extent of discrimination against women workers in Italy.

On 22-23 April 1999, the government and the social partners met in various sessions at the National Council for Economic Affairs and Labour (Consiglio nazionale dell'economia e del lavoro, Cnel) in Rome to verify the application of the December 1998 tripartite "social pact" for development and employment (IT9901335F). One of the sessions covered equal opportunities, and discussion centred around analysis of a report drafted by the Minister of Equal Opportunities, Laura Balbo. The report, which provides data concerning 1998, presents a gloomy picture of the situation of women workers in Italy.

The report finds that:

• women represented 51.4% of the Italian population in 1998;

• the rate of female economic activity in Italy is 35.3% (against 60.5% for men), which is the lowest rate of any OECD country (where the average is 51%);

• female unemployment is 16.8% (the European average is 12.4%), while male unemployment is 9.6%. Italy together with Spain has the highest female unemployment rate - for comparison, the rate in Germany is 10.6%, in France 14.5%, in Great Britain 5.8% and in Finland 15.2%;

• the work carried out by women is less guaranteed and protected - 21.3% of the female workforce work in the hidden economy and 15.1% have fixed-term jobs;

• women managers and middle managers make up 5.3% of the total female workforce and entrepreneurs only 3.8%. Women represent 16% of all the managers in Italy while in Great Britain they represent 33.3%, in France 32.4% and in Portugal 21.6%;

• the average pay of female workers is lower that that of men. A woman manager covering the same position earns 74% of a male manager's pay, a woman in an administrative job earns 79% of the pay of a man in the same position and an unqualified blue-collar woman earns 84% of the pay of an equivalent man;

• women's average educational level is higher than that of men - 12% of women workers have a university degree against 10.3% of men, while 33.2% of women have a high-school diploma against 26.7% of men; and

• 7.2% of female job-seekers have a university degree and 36.1% have a high-school diploma, compared with rates of 4.6% and 29% respectively for male job-seekers.

Sergio Mattarella, the Vice-Prime Minister, said that discrimination against women in Italy "has old cultural roots which are difficult to extirpate". He underlined that during the past 15 years the culture of equal opportunities had spread considerably, thanks partly to decisive actions taken by the government. He said that it is unacceptable that "women more competent and with higher qualifications than men have more difficulties in finding a job."

The Minister for Equal Opportunities declared that the government's policies will have to "allow women to reconcile family and working life" and at the same time "foster the growth of the female component of the working population through sectoral plans aimed at developing environment protection, tourism and artistic heritage".

Annamaria Parente, responsible for the coordinating women's affairs at the Cisl trade union confederation, underlined that this was "the first time that the situation of discrimination against women workers has been so well emphasised. It is possible to overcome this situation only by facing the general problems of the country. We need development policies able to foster a greater participation by women in work. Female and youth unemployment, especially in the South, must be regarded as a problem for everybody, as an heavy economic cost which hinders the country's economic growth and development."