At the top of the companies listed on the Stock Exchange, the female presence is still close to zero. According to Assonime's 2020 report on Italian corporate governance, which analyzes 220 of the 242 companies present on the MTA as at 31 December 2019, only 7% of executive presidents and 5% of managing directors are women. Among the other executive roles, the figure is growing, but still remains very far from parity, stopping at 20%. If, on the other hand, we broaden our gaze to the board of directors as a whole, the presence of women stands at 37%, while in the boards of statutory auditors it reaches 39%. The first figure is destined to rise in the coming months: based on an amendment to the Budget law, in fact, from 2021 the so-called "pink quota" in the boards of listed companies will rise from 30 to 40%.
As for only i non-executive roles, from the study by the Association of Italian Spas – now in its 19th edition – it emerges that female representation is the majority among independent directors (55%) and reaches 46% in the boards of statutory auditors. However, the percentages go down if the analysis is restricted to the non-executive chairmen of the Boards (19%) and of the Cs (25%).
The situation is different advisory committees, where gender equality is almost always respected. In particular, the Assonime report underlines that the presence of men and women is almost perfectly balanced in the committees dealing with remuneration, control and risks. In these same bodies – where the Corporate Governance Code requires the majority if not all of the independent members – women hold the presidency in 55% of the cases, perhaps precisely because of their prevalence among the independent directors. In the nomination committees, on the other hand, the male directors return in the majority (57%).
Finally, on the side of remuneration, “we did not find evidence of a gender gap either for managing directors or for independent directors – concludes Assonime – In both cases, the lower level of remuneration of women at the aggregate level is due to their presence in companies characterized by a lower pay (small companies, non-financial corporations), rather than the gender gap within each company category”.
