Summary

The article discusses the underrepresentation of women in Italy's decision-making processes during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite their significant presence on the front lines and the challenges they face, including domestic violence and digital divide in education.

Abstract

The article highlights the concerns raised by Laura Boldrini, a prominent Italian politician, about the lack of female representation in the government's task force aimed at reviving the country post-lockdown. Despite women forming the majority of essential service workers during the pandemic, they constitute only 25% of the task force. The article underscores the critical role women have played, such as the female researchers who first identified the coronavirus gene variants at Rome's Spallanzani Hospital. It also addresses the rise in domestic violence against women during the lockdown and the inadequate digital infrastructure in Italian homes, which has exacerbated educational disparities. The article concludes by noting Italy's overall poor ranking in gender equality within the EU, emphasizing the need for more significant progress in achieving workplace and political parity.

Opinions

Laura Boldrini resents the insufficient representation of women in Italy's recovery task force, believing that women should be more involved in life-preserving decisions at all levels of governance.
The article opines that the pandemic has highlighted women's contributions on the front lines, especially in healthcare, supermarkets, caregiving, and online education, yet their voices remain underrepresented in leadership roles.
There is a critical view of the increase in domestic violence against women during the pandemic, with calls for governments to prioritize prevention and redress in their COVID-19 response plans.
The article expresses concern over the digital divide in Italy, noting that a significant percentage of Italian families lack internet access, which has complicated remote learning and increased stress for many women who have had to take on additional household and educational responsibilities.
Italy's low ranking in the Gender Equality Index, particularly in work and political power, is seen as a call to action for the country to address gender inequality more robustly.
The initiative to twin schools in poorer areas with better-equipped urban schools is praised as a positive step to address educational inequities during the pandemic.

Equality

Women On The Frontline in Italy Are Poorly Represented

When progress on gender inequality is not enough

I have just listened to a well-known woman politician on Italian radio. Her name is Laura Boldrini a prominent member of the leftwing PD (Partito Democratico) party and an ex-UN official. She was the President of the lower house of Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies.

She resents the fact that women only make up 25% of the Italian government’s task force which is working to get the country back on its feet after a very long lockdown of two months. The taskforce includes a wide range of experts from industrialists, scientists, psychologists, economists to educationalists.

She has protested that women are not being involved in life-preserving decisions taken by the authorities. The men are doing all that and it is at every level — town councils, regional authorities, political parties, and the government itself.

Women are not represented as they should be.

The vast majority of personnel on the frontline in hospitals, supermarkets, caregiving, teaching online, and countless other essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic are women.

She went on to explain that it was three female researchers at the Spallanzani Hospital in Rome who were the first to discover the coronavirus gene variants which are a breakthrough in understanding how the virus spreads. It was ironic to discover that one of the women was only on a temporary contract but she has now been offered a permanent contract.

Women are also facing hardship in many other ways during this emergency and they need more representation to make their voices heard and to help solve the problems they face.

Increase in domestic violence against women.

Many countries around the world have recorded horrific increases in domestic assaults on women. Countries such as Brazil, Cyprus, the UK, Spain, and Italy have recorded rises from 20% to 50%. While the femicide rates in Italy have declined over the years, there are fears that this will rise again during and after the lockdown.

“For sure there is an overwhelming emergency right now. There is more desperation as women can’t go out.” — Lella Palladino, from EVA Cooperativa

“All governments should make the prevention and redress of violence against women a key part of their national response plans against COVID-19’, as there is a horrifying rise in crimes against them.” — The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres.

Women are the new homeschoolers.

Italy has not invested very much in its school system and lags behind other countries. When schools closed, teachers were scrambling to find their way around the various platforms so they were totally unprepared. There were problems with getting kids connected and many teachers just dumped a load of homework to be done with their books.

In addition, it is astonishing to realize that up to 24% of Italian families have no access to the Internet according to the National Statistics Agency (ISTAT).

The Italian government acted quickly and immediately distributed 46,000 tablets to resolve the issue by making use of a 70 million euro fund. But many families would have to change telephone contracts to get access and then there was the problem of how to use computers. Many poorer parents, especially women were finding that their household load had doubled as they were inevitably involved. This added enormously to their stress.

The other major problem is that Italy is way down the digitalization index — it is at the bottom of the EU countries at number 24 out of a total of 28. It has not used IT in teaching as it could have and that is causing many problems.

One initiative which is praiseworthy is where schools in poorer areas have been twinned with schools in richer urban areas who are better equipped so that expertise and experience can be shared.

Gender inequality in Italy

In the EU, Italy ranks only in 14th place on the Gender Equality Index. While Italy has made strides, there is still lots to be done. It still has a very low ranking in the area of work (54%) and power (only 30% in Parliament) which is what Laura Boldrini was emphasizing when she spoke on the radio.

“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.” ― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own.

Some other equality stories I have written:-

Practical Tips On How To Really Share Housework, Kids And All the Rest.

Time to think about the mental load

medium.com

Italy Femicide Numbers Demand Action- How to Stop Femicide

A few changes have been made but not nearly enough

medium.com