For Cristina Scocchia, the coats tell the story. Long before the 50-year-old took over as chief executive officer of Italy’s Illycaffe, she was CEO at another firm when a group of male visitors arrived for a meeting and proceeded to hand her their coats, assuming she was someone’s assistant.
Italy has progressed since then, but the coffee maker’s chief says gender bias and stereotypes still hamper progress for the nation’s female executives, reflecting a corporate landscape where women hold just a handful of the top jobs.
“I am always the exotic CEO,” Scocchia said in an interview for Bloomberg’s Italian-language podcast, Quello Che i Soldi Non Dicono, as she related the hurdles keeping more women from breaking through in what is still a highly male-dominated country.
Photo: EPA-EFE
While women everywhere have struggled to land top corporate jobs, the situation is particularly dire in Italy.
Just 3.9 percent of Italian firms had a woman as their CEO at the end of last year, according to a Deloitte report.
WRONG DIRECTION
Even worse, the country appears to be heading in the wrong direction — the most recent number is almost half as many as in 2021.
Italy’s underperformance looks even more stark when considering chief financial officer positions. Just 5.7 percent of Italian companies have a woman in that role, compared with a global figure of 17.6 percent.
Scocchia and Iveco Group NV chief financial officer Anna Tanganelli, another of the country’s rare top female executives, said Italians lack awareness that women have the same right to professional advancement as men — and that both genders bear equal responsibility for raising children and caring for aging parents.
Instead, that burden falls largely on the women in Italian families, and the state does little to help.
“Last but not least, the country needs more services to support parents,” Scocchia said.
Where Rome has weighed in — with landmark 2011 legislation imposing quotas for women on corporate boards — the effect has been dramatic. Italy is now among the top six in percentage of women serving on boards, with a share above 40 percent, the Deloitte report said.
The quotas “have been super-helpful in breaking the glass ceiling into boardrooms,” Tanganelli said on the podcast, adding that the legislation has been “the driving force behind the increase in the presence of women on management committees.”
However, both executives acknowledged that the quota system has been a double-edged sword for Italian women, leading to sometimes painful debates over merit.
BITTER MEDICINE
Scocchia called the quotas “a very bitter, but necessary medicine” to shake up the system and give women a foot in the door.
“The battle for gender equality can’t be won without them,” she said.
The measure may be giving women who would otherwise have been shut out a chance to show their mettle, and to demonstrate that they can bring a unique mix of skills to the table.
Tanganelli, who has defied the odds with her rise up the ranks in the uber-male auto industry, said women’s ability to fuse empathy, competence and inclusion is a trait most men cannot match, and one that shows itself in the form of grace under pressure during tense crisis periods like the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
We women “have an underlying resilience that helps overcome complexity, even in managing crisis and adversity,” Tanganelli said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
RSS