The government body in charge of gender equality in Italy is the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
The National Code of Equal Opportunities between women and men approved in 2006 represents the legal framework on gender equality (Law 198/2006). Gender quotas are in force according to Law 215/2012. With regard to public administration, a national directive of 2007 ensures the implementation of measures for equality and equal opportunities between men and women. It aims to ensure that the provisions in force are implemented within the public administration, increase the presence of women in management positions, develop good practices for the management of human resources in order to guarantee equal opportunities, as well as promote knowledge and application of the tools for equal opportunities between men and women by HR managers in public administration.
Considering the negative impacts of the Covid crisis, in discontinuity with the past, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan addresses gender inequalities in a transversal way. The Plan combines the three strategic axes shared at European level (digitization and innovation, ecological transition and social inclusion) with transversal priorities, including that of promoting gender equality. These are priorities pursued directly or indirectly in all six missions of the Plan. Interventions can be identified as measures “aimed at women” (planned with the specific objective of intervening in favor of women) and others as measures “indirectly attributable to the reduction of inequalities” (which could have an impact in the reduction of inequalities).
As regards specifically the cultural sector, a specific national Observatory on Gender Equality was established by the Ministry of Culture in 2021. It will be dedicated to the survey, study and dissemination of data on gender gaps, which play a fundamental role in influencing social awareness.
To encourage private subjects to pay more attention to gender issues, a possible tool is to condition public funding to transparency in the “gender-policy” (overall workforce, top positions, salaries, etc.) of the requesting organizations. A measure of this type is contained in the Audiovisual Law promoted by the Minister of Culture Franceschini (Law 220/2016) through specific incentives to producers who contract female directors and authors.
Some best practices, implemented by public and private subjects in the cultural field, are also worth mentioning:
- The campaign #8marzoalmuseo, launched in 2016 by the MiC, aimed at celebrating women artists and historic characters as well as promoting women’s cultural participation trough free entrance in state owned museums on the 8th of March;
- The Female Toponymy Association since 2012 puts pressure on local administrations so that street names also remember women in history (at the moment they are only 5% of the total) and invests in school projects;
- The Association Amleta, an inter-sectoral feminist collective that focuses on the presence of women in the world of performing arts, on the representation of women in classical and contemporary drama, and acts as a vigilant and constant watchdog to identify and combat violence and harassment in the workplace.
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