(Finance) – The good news is that Italy is in first place in Europe for the number of female entrepreneurs and independent workers, 1.61 million, the decidedly bad news is that it is at the bottom of the EU ranking for female employment rate: 53.4% against the average of 66.1%. And it stands out in Europe for another negative record: the largest number of young women between 25-34 years old, 938 thousand, who do not offer themselves on the job market. This is what emerges from the Confartigianato report presented at the confederation’s Donne Impresa convention, which highlights the lights and shadows of women’s work in Italy. Between 2021 and 2023, the employment rate of women increased by 2.4 percentage points and the number of self-employed workers increased by 4.8%. Which also establish themselves in the most innovative fields with an increase, recorded from 2018 to 2023, of 13.4% of companies in the digital sectors and a small army of 28 thousand pioneers in artificial intelligence.
But female entrepreneurs have to deal with cwith a series of obstacles: difficulty in accessing credit, a welfare system that does not support them, the shortage of manpower. In 2023, 46% of the staff, equal to 266 thousand workers, required by micro and small businesses led by women were difficult to find
“Entrepreneurs and Italian women in general – underlines the president of Donne Impresa Confartigianato, Daniela Biolatto – suffer from low public spending to support families and young people: we are in 22nd place in Europe with just 1.4% of resources dedicated to this objective. In practice, compared to 12 euros for healthcare and pensions for the elderly, only one euro goes to families and young people”. According to the Confartigianato report, things are no better in terms of commitment to reducing gender inequalities. In 2022, public spending intended for this purpose, including funds for female entrepreneurship, incentives for female employment and work-life balance measures, fell by 25.6% compared to 2021, equal to 1. 4 billion less. Hopes for recovery are entrusted to the 24.9% increase in the allocations foreseen for the three-year period 2024-2026 and to the interventions of the PNRR which, however, show delays in implementation, in particular with regard to nursery schools: only 14.1% of the projects were awarded.