Survey on gender equality within Italian companies / indagine sulla parità di genere all’interno delle aziende italiane

A survey conducted by EY and SWG in February 2022 to investigate the presence and role of women within Italian companies, surveying working women and men as well as women and men managers, executives, middle managers and entrepreneurs.

Only 44% of executives interviewed knew of the gender-equality certification introduced under Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), part of Mission 5 ('Cohesion and inclusion'), which was introduced to reduce the gender gap. There was a marked perception gap: 76% of male executives, versus 50% of female executives, thought men and women are treated fairly. On personal experience, around 30% of female workers believed their position did not match their skills or expectations, 36% felt their skills were not adequately valued, and over 40% considered their remuneration inadequate. Half of all interviewees believed there is inequality of career opportunities and salaries between men and women.

The survey provides a synthetic snapshot of how managers, both men and women, at surveyed businesses perceive the role of women within their organisations, highlighting a persistent gap between how fairly male and female executives believe women are treated.