Il Sole 24ore has published a special dossier to celebrate the International Women’s Day.
An interesting research by BCG shows that women will represent the future global economic power, together with an interview with Maurizia Iachino from Key2people on women on boards and an overview on the key numbers on women.
Read Dossier 8 marzo (in Italian)
Il Sole 24ore has created “Agorà, I blog del Sole 24ore” within its website.
Anna Zavaritt is the blogger of “La revolution en rose – Perché una rinuncia è una perdita. Per tutti”, a blog that focuses on women and career and what we could/should do to make things change.
Monica was interviewed as President of PWA Milan on women and networking and the current situation of working women in Italy.
Read the interview “3 domande a…Monica Pesce” (interview in Italian)
Moderator: Rosanna D’Antona, President D’Antona & Partners – Communication strategies
Participants:
Introduction
It’s a well-known fact that the position of women in the workforce and on career paths is slowly but continually rising all over the world. In this context, the media plays a vital role. Specifically, those in media that deal with the economic and business community can significantly influence the evolution of the human resources field in the following areas:
Assuming all of this to be true, when we analyze the media as industry, we note that this sector as well has very limited numbers of women in management positions. We’d like to know why, as in other sectors, this disparity exists and we’d like to work together to identify the tools that can help close this gap. We know that when there is a woman at the top, the “women call other women” effect occurs and this could be an effective means for change. Taking Italy as an example, we can roughly estimate the number of women editors-in-chief of daily publications at 1%: only one single woman in management of Provincia Pavese, but the percentages remain equal, if not declining when we extend the exercise to weekly economic publication where the presence of women is practically zero. In the 8 news magazines, under the management of L’Espresso where there is one woman, the finding is 12%. Overall in approximately 280 periodicals excluding women’s magazines, women account for only 14% of management positions.
Conclusion
I am inviting all of the groups present that work for the empowerment of women in our country to join a Manifesto to work for equal rights in the media and equal treatment of men and women by the media, the themes we have discussed today. The Manifesto will strive to become a guide of best practices and a benchmark, to be presented to the Federation of Editors and to directors of the printed press, radio and television in order to push for cultural change through articles and investigative reporting, ultimately heightening our society’s awareness of the position of women in the workplace in Italy. Together we can influence those who influence opinions in our country.
Thank you
Rosanna D’Antona thanks the following organization leaders who have committed themselves and their groups to work together on the Manifesto.
There is still a long way to go but the presentation at the Il Sole 24 Ore forum of three well renowned companies in Italy shed hope on the battle of the sexes. Here is a little summary of what these companies are doing to ensure equal opportunities.Mara Caverni, Partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers seemed the least convincing of three. Despite the fact that there is a 50:50 representation of men and women, only 13% of women make it as partners. They are nevertheless promoting coaching activities and other initiatives to assist women. The problem; however is that the nature of the work requires long hours and unfortunately does not suit women with families assuming that the woman is bearing also these responsibilities. In any case, her message is “Lead as a Woman”, you are good for what you are.
Luca Rossetto, Managing Director of UPIM said that their company also had an equal balance of gender. He laid down their company’s best practices:
Francesca Chelli, Managing Director of Nespresso was my hero. A beautiful and elegant woman not only preserves her femininity but also applies it to the workplace. A true example of what a woman in power is capable of doing – making the changes to create a favourable environment also for women and ensuring a successful company. The changes she made were to introduce flexible contracts for both men and women. To ensure that everyone went home at a decent time i.e. staying late at the office is an exception – (she has two children and making time for them is not a weakness). Finally, she ensures that efficiency is the company motto. Meetings are kept to a minimum with a strict agenda.
Hema Mali
The case for Differentiated Taxation per Gender (DTG) in favour of women was presented at the Sole 24 Ore Forum on Leadership al Femminile on March 10, 2008. The logic behind this proposal is that often, more so in Italy, the tendency, after maternity leave, is for women to remain at home to look after the children. Moreover, any unforeseen circumstances like illnesses including those of family members is perceived to be the woman’s responsibility and it is assumed that she will give up her career to bear the burden. After all it is taken for granted that any chances of a career will naturally be hindered due to pregnancy or if it would take off at all. Her pay is usually lower than that of her partner and therefore logically it makes sense to support the breadwinner from a cost benefit point of view.The downside of this is many unhappy women; lack of resources in the job market and an imbalance of share of responsibility in the home. Should the world come tumbling down for instance in the case of an illness or a separation – as they say in England – you’re buggered!
Professor Ichino of Bologna University together with two other professors from Harvard University put together a proposal in order to induce women to enter the workforce whether after maternity leave or in general because they tend to be disadvantaged. It is true that children need their parents especially in the first years of life-the proposal however, also serves to encourage men to share the responsibility, create resources within the family and not to impact families who want to have children!
<>The theory is that, the supply of women labour is more responsive to their after tax wage. So a reduction in taxes increases the labour participation of women substantially. Men’s labour supply is more rigid so an increase in taxes does not reduce their labour supply by much, if at all. Ergo, for a given tax cut on women, with a smaller tax increase on men one maintains the same total revenue with little tax distortion for the State. This is simply an application of the general principle of public finance that goods with a more elastic supply should be taxed less. Thus it should be relatively cheaper for an employer to hire women and discrimination becomes more costly.
There are two ways to achieve this. Based on the assumption that everyone works and GDP remains constant, a different set of tax deductions can be applied to women, which has the disadvantage that women with jobs in a higher tax bracket may not benefit. The alternative is to set different tax rates on income which is the method preferred by Professor Ichino et al. According to the Professor, in Italy the difference in tax rates could be as much as 30% based on the current tax system.
Objections are typically oriented around two beliefs: that a woman’s place is in the home; and that any policy that favours a historically disadvantaged group is reactionary. In any case, the proposal is discriminatory and anti-constitutional. However, as Professor Ichino points out, this is nothing new. There is nothing more hypocritical than to invoke equal treatment in some areas (taxation) for those who are not treated equally in many other areas (the labour market and in the family, such as rearing children or caring for elder family members). There are already a host of polices that are not gender neutral in Italy e.g. tax deduction for families with children. These could be eliminated by adopting a simple differentiation of tax schedule for both men and women. This proposal could even be applied temporarily to instigate change in the balance of working women.
The proposal has been widely debated. Minister Visco liked the proposal to create fiscal advantages, but he stated that differentiation should take place on the side of the company and not directly on the woman. In theory it should have the same effect, therefore inducing companies to hire more women. In practice, this is not true – Ichino points out that it is better to give the incentive directly to the job seeker to look for a job.
The concept forms part of the pre electoral programs in both political camps. The left should appreciate the emphasis on an increase of women’s participation and success in the labour market. The right should appreciate the fiscal efficiency of the proposal that would substitute publicly provided services and substitute quotas and affirmative action. One will have to wait and see just how serious the winning party is to implement such a change.
Following on from a successful event last year, IL Sole 24 ORE presents the second Business Culture Forum – Women in Leadership. During the day experts, top managers and opinion leaders will come together to identify the current and future drivers of women’s leadership and to explore incentives to promote new women’s initiatives in the global economy. To reserve for the event or for further information, please visit www.formazione.ilsole24ore.com/forumdonna.
