(Finance) – On the occasion of the international women’s day, the traditional bell ringing ceremony will take place in Milan, at Palazzo Mezzanotte dedicate the opening of financial markets to the issue of gender equality and women empowerment in the workplace, markets and community. Ring the Bell for Gender Equality, organized by UN Global Compact Network Italy, Borsa Italiana and Women in ETFs, will be broadcast on March 8 in live streaming from 8.50 to 10.
UN Global Compact Network Italy ? which represents in our country the United Nations Global Compact, the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world? remember that the theme chosen by the United Nations for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Innovation and technology for gender equality: for an inclusive digital world”.
The women continue to be over-represented in the education, health and care sectors compared to men, while they are underrepresented in STEM fields. If graduates from all sectors are considered, the Percentage of female Information and Communication Technologies (ITC) graduates it is 1.7% compared to 8.2% for male college graduates. Furthermore, women leave the tech industry at a 45% higher rate than men.
“Today technical-scientific skills are the most sought after on the labor market and is this demand destined to increase in the near future? he declared Marco Frey, president of the UN Global Compact Network Italy –. However, both in Italy and in the world, the percentage of women graduates in STEM disciplines is around 19%, although on average they complete their degree course to a greater extent than men (50% against 48%) and with a slightly higher (107.3 against 106.4). In fact, there is still a deep-rooted cultural bias whereby women and science are perceived as a difficult combination, which pushes the female population to prefer training in the humanistic field. This phenomenon ? goes on Frey ? contributes not only to widening the economic gender gap – depriving women of many job opportunities ? but at the same time it makes companies pay the cost of the loss of potential female talent and leadership, thus harming not only the fairness and inclusiveness of the markets but also their prosperity”.
UN Global Compact Network Italy will be represented at the ceremony by Star Sealedprogram & Engagement Manager, who will present the results of the first year of activity of the “TGE – Target Gender Equality” project, a 9-month course to provide companies with the skills to set and achieve gender equality goals, with a view to increasing the impact on SDG 5 – Gender Equality of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
To the Target Gender Equality 2022 around 40 companies took part, with a good presence of SMEs. During the course, 75% of the participants signed up to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, developed by the UN Global Compact to guide the overcoming of the gender gap, or undertook to do so within a year of conclusion.
Ring the Bell for Gender Equality is a ceremonial organized every year by over 100 stock exchanges around the world to dedicate the opening of the financial markets to the theme of Gender Equality. At the global level, the initiative is promoted by the UN Global Compact, the World Federation of Exchanges, the International Finance Corporation, the UN Women and the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative.