In the outcome document of the first G7 dedicated to Equal Opportunities, chaired by Italy on 15 and 16 November this year in Taormina, the governments committed themselves to “implementing and monitoring” interventions for gender equality.

 

*Francesca Paolucci

 

At the conclusion of the year of Italian Presidency of the G7, the Meeting on Equal Opportunities took place in Taormina on 15 and 16 November and was chaired by under-secretary of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in charge of Equal Opportunities Maria Elena Boschi. The meeting hosted the Heads of Delegation of Canada, Japan, United States, Germany, France and United Kingdom as well as the European Commissioner for justice, Consumer Protection and Gender Equality, Vĕra Jourová.

 

The G7 on Gender Equality was focussed on the economic empowerment of women, a matter very dear to the international organisations and which has long been present in the political agenda of the governments of the world. In May this year, during the summit between the seven most advanced economies of the world taking place in Taormina, “the great of the earth” signed the Roadmap for a Gender-Responsive Economic Environment (insert link doc). Following this, the November meeting aimed either to strengthen objectives, goals and commitments fixed in the Roadmap outlined in May and reaffirm the fundamental principles originating from the Fourth World Conference on Women taking place in Beijing in 1995, ratified in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

 

In the international context of the G7, Italy represented those interests and values shared by the participant countries. Unfortunately, none of them has still achieved a true gender equality, despite the important efforts made, such as redesigning the job market and the welfare system to release women’s potential in the economic sphere; rethinking legislative measures aimed to increase women’s participation in leadership positions and decisional processes and preventing and fighting gender violence, including the trafficking of women.

The common aims of the participating countries were reinforced by the signing of a final declaration, through which the representatives of Canada, Maryam Monsef (Minister for Women’s Affairs), France, Marlène Schiappa (Secretary of State in charge of Equality between Women and Men), United States, Kathryn C. Kaufman (President Advisor) United Kingdom, Joanna Roper (Special Envoy for Gender Equality), Germany, Katarina Barley (Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth), Japan, Yuhei Yamashita (Parliament Deputy Minister of the Cabinet Office), confirmed their «commitment to making any effort to achieve the qualitative and quantitative goals and comply with the deadlines fixed in the G7 Roadmap, in order to create an economic environment sensitive to gender dimension. Creating such an environment has the aim to foster those cultural, policy and mentality changes, which are necessary to reduce disparities between existing genders, as well as eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination towards women and girls, so as to finally achieve gender equality in our countries». (Declaration of the Ministers at Meeting on Gender Equality)

 

Italian policies on equality

Italy, hosting country and head of the meeting, presented a resuming document showing all the actions its government has undertaken in the last years regarding gender equality and highlighting the positive evolution of its policies.

 

According to an analysis carried out by the European Institute for Gender Equality, the Gender Equality Index, elaborated on the basis of six factors, such as work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, during the 2005-2015 decade has grown in Europe at a very slow pace, scoring an improvement of only 4.2 percentage points, from 62 to 66,2. In the same period of time, Italy has instead registered significant improvements towards gender equality, with an index increase of 13 points (from 49,2 to 62,2).

 

Furthermore, as far as the job market is concerned, the female employment rate reached in September 2017 its all-time high since 1977: according to ISTAT, the 48,9% of women of working age (15-64) had a job, the 16% of which as self-employed. These results are partly due to the implementation of the Law of the so-called ‘pink quotas’ (Golfo-Mosca Act n. 120/2011) and of the ‘Jobs Act’ (d.lgs. n.80/2015). According to CONSOB and Department of Equal Opportunities, the percentage of women present in the board of directors of Italian companies has increased by 33,6% (2017). Similarly, the female presence in the Parliament reached the highest levels in the history of the Italian Republic: 31% in the Chamber of Deputies and 29,6% in the Senate. By introducing the Jobs Act, the Italian government has undertaken to invest between 2017 and 2018, 110 million of euros in companies to ensure the balance between work and private life of their employees. Moreover, economic resources were deployed to foster the adoption of a more flexible and smart work management in terms of time and space, either in public and private sector, for 300.000 smart workers.

 

Nevertheless, even if the salary gap between men and women has been reduced, it has not still been filled. In the light of this, issues such as salary gap and career chances have been addressed by the Italian government through the adoption of concrete measures attempting at reducing the phenomenon in the long term.

 

For instance, since 2013 a series of innovative tools have been created to foster credit access for women. One of them was the establishment of a fund of 34 million of euros dedicated to SME investing in female employment, bringing about 16.000 transactions. Furthermore, in 2014 the Department for Equal Opportunities and the Ministry of Economic Development initialled the Memorandum of Understanding with the ABI (Italian Banking Association) and other commerce associations to facilitate access to credit for female entrepreneurs and professionals.

 

Over the years, Italian politics have started up again also as regards the issue of safety and violence against women, either physical and psychological, taking place in the workplace and non, by adopting measures regarding prevention, protection and transparency of sentencing. An example of this policy is the ‘law against feminicide’ (n.119/2013), direct consequence of the ratification on the part of Italy, on 12 June 2013, of the Council of European Convention on prevention and fight of violence against women and domestic violence, treaty initialled in Istanbul in 2011.

 

The Under-secretary of the Presidency of the Council Maria Elena Boschi described the project as ambitious and then passed the torch to Canada, “which will have the responsibility and the honour to chair the G7 of the next year”. Indeed, the issue of equal opportunities for genders was widely debated in the relations between the Italy and Canada. Indeed, in May this year during his visit in Italy, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned gender equality as a priority in the theme of cooperation, in order to achieve the emancipation of women in the international stage. This message was shared and strengthened also by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini and by Maria Elena Boschi herself, on the occasion of their respective institutional visits in Canada. In fact, Canada is an important partner and an example for Italy, since it has always been proactive in promoting equality of women and their full participation in the economic, social and democratic life of the Country. This achievement has been possible through the implementation of concrete policies involving different bodies of the government and a federal government organisation specifically created, Status of Women Canada, committed to either the safety of women (It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence) and the financing of projects aimed at reinforcing their socio-economic position (Women’s Program).

 

* Coordination and research Centro Studi Italia-Canada