The Inter-institutional Observatory on women’s participation in the management and control of Italian companies, held by the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, CONSOB and the Bank of Italy, has published a report on women’s participation in the management and control of Italian companies and on the implementation of the Golfo-Mosca law (no. 120 of 2011).

The report shows how the presence of women in top management positions in Italian companies is limited overall, although significant progress has been recorded over the last decade, particularly for companies affected by the provisions of Law 120/2011. The quota of women on boards of directors at the beginning of the period examined was rather low for all types of companies considered. The presence of women in the administrative bodies of companies has increased in subsequent years, although to a heterogeneous extent in the different types of companies. In sectors without constraints on gender composition, the shares of women on administrative bodies has remained stable (in private companies) or increased modestly (in banks), reaching 24 and 17 percent, respectively, in 2019. In listed companies and publicly controlled companies, on the other hand, a significant increase in the presence of women is observed as a result of the measures introduced by the Golfo-Mosca law (the share in 2019 was 37 and 25 percent, respectively). The lower presence of women in the administrative bodies of publicly controlled companies compared to listed companies is partly attributable to the prevalence among the first of numerous companies with a sole director (38.6 percent of the total in 2019). In such companies, only 10.4 percent of directors are women, while in those with a board of directors, the latter account for 27.4 percent of the members.