The Quiet Revolution Left Unfinished

THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM HAS CALCULATED THAT, AT THIS PACE, IT WILL TAKE 131 YEARS TO ACHIEVE COMPLETE EQUALITY BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN THE WORLD. IN ITALY, WHERE THE FEMALE EMPLOYMENT RATE IS THE LOWEST IN EUROPE, CULTURAL FACTORS WEIGH HEAVILY IN PUTTING WOMEN BEHIND

by Paola Profeta, Full Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences
Translated by Alex Foti

The transformation of the role of women represents the biggest change achieved in our societies in the last century. Advances in the sphere of rights – starting from the right to vote – have been accompanied by profound changes in the economy and society, putting nations on the long path towards gender equality. Women left the domestic household and began to invest in their education, became workers and employees, entered the professions and positions of power. A veritable social revolution.
Claudia Goldin, 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics, speaks of a "quiet revolution", because it makes no noise, but proceeds and advances slowly and steadily. Goldin also explains that this revolution occurred in different phases and not always in a linear way, and was also influenced by technological improvements, for example the introduction of the contraceptive pill which allowed women to plan fertility choices, also in relation to employment.

But it is also an unfinished revolution. Gender equality has not yet been achieved in any country in the world, particularly in the spheres of economic opportunity and political representation. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 131 years to achieve equality between men and women in the world, if we continue at the slow pace that has characterized recent decades. Considering the economic dimension alone, the years of waiting become a staggering 169.
How is our society changing and what can we expect regarding equality between men and women in the coming years?
Women are now more educated than men. Even in Italy – second-to-last country in Europe in terms of the overall number of college graduates, followed only by Romania – there are more young women than men getting their degrees today. In 1950, women were 25% of graduates, today they are almost 60%. But they continue to trail behind in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) disciplines that are important for the jobs of the future. Today in Europe only 16% of STEM jobs are held by women. At work, only one woman in two is employed in Italy, which has the lowest female employment rate in the EU. When working, women face greater obstacles than men in the progression of their careers and receive lower earnings. Motherhood leads to losses in employment and wages estimated at around 33%. The low employment rate represents the equilibrium of a market in which statistical discrimination penalizes female labor. Yet even the fertility rate is at its lowest in Italy, pointing to the fact that in a changing society work and children are no longer alternative choices as in the past.

Cultural factors remain at the roots of the differences observed. Even today, more than 50% of Italians think that young children will suffer if their mothers work. In Sweden the corresponding proportion is 15%, in France and Germany around 30% (World Values Survey). Regarding jobs, 25% of Italians think that if work is scarce, men should have precedence over women, while in Sweden the corresponding figure does not even reach 3%. The culture that imposes a rigid division of gender roles originates in the family: Italian working women dedicate two hours and 55 minutes more per day than men to unpaid work (care and domestic work). In a recent study (Fanelli and Profeta, 2020) we showed that women who share care work and domestic work in a more balanced way with their partners are more likely to have a child after three years while continuing to work full time. The change starts from a more balanced allocation of time between men and women. Signs of change in this direction are coming from the new generations, reinforced by the spread of new forms of organization of work based on the flexibility of time and space. After the experience made with the pandemic, remote working has remained the prevalent form of work. Flexibility appeals to young people, both men and women. Whether this will help with a better sharing of roles between men and women – at home and at work – remains to be seen, but in a changing society this is a positive sign for gender equality (Angelici and Profeta, 2023).