We will remember the month of November 2020 for a long time as the time of planning and post-Covid-19 economic and financial recovery, especially since the debate on the investment priorities of the Recovery Fund in Italy monopolized media attention. November is also the month for the fight against violence against women, and more generally of respect for gender equality and political, social and economic measures which cause gender discrimination at work and in daily life to become increasingly marginal. Apparently distant, the two issues are in reality reconcilable and interconnected: the watchwords of the new provisions included in the new budget law will be tax relief on women's work, work-family reconciliation policies and the tools to be provided to companies to allow women to grow in their careers. "It is a great opening, an important step, but still insufficient to be able to speak of the beginning of a change that will depend on the commitment of each of us", explains Senator Donatella Conzatti, group leader of Italia Viva in the Budget Committee and secretary of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Femicide, established in 2018.
“In any case, the resources for women will never be enough in our country. The Recovery Fund has emphasized the economic value of gender equality, and the latter in Italy could be worth almost as much as this year's debt, 100 billion, if we had the same level of employment for men or if women had the same level of employment as European women»: in short, explains Conzatti with conviction , "the Recovery Fund could represent an extraordinary boost for our economy". Investing in women's employment therefore not only to respect gender equality but also to make new investments a driving force for growth. In fact, the latest estimates show that if female employment rose to 60% with the Recovery Fund, GDP would increase by 7 percentage points.
«Italy ranks fourth from last for female employment among the countries of the European Union. Between the fight against gender-based violence and the promotion of equal employment, over 30 million euros are allocated to our country a year but the direct and indirect cost of discrimination and violence (social workers, medical and legal expenses) amounts to 17 billion euros the year. We need more resources, and we need the commitment of each of us on all fronts», continues Senator Renziana. And it is precisely on the meaning of Prevention in the fight against discrimination and gender-based violence that Senator Conzatti will be a speaker at a conference in the Senate on November 27 entitled "Prevention of violence against women through intervention on men perpetrators of acts of violence maid" where he will present the bill on abusive men that bears his name. A delicate and little debated work to be carried out on abusive men in Italy, for which Donatella Conzatti has received criticism from some fringes of radical feminism, but on which she does not intend to let go: «It is in everyone's interest that women and children are protected, and that sons do not learn the violent behavior of their fathers. But we are convinced that to implement all this it is also necessary to work on men».
In fact, if the perpetrators of violence against women are men, explains the senator who has been involved in the issue for years, "they need to be the first to change their behavior to change the cultural context of the country, and this it is a job that must be done by schools and universities with communication campaigns with a medium horizon. We cannot not work on men. This is not an alternative approach to the fight against violence: as the Istanbul Convention says, it is an integrated approach on several levels of intervention, and men must be part of this great project". And the numbers of the figures allocated to combat gender-based violence in the new budget law can only prove this approach right: 30 million euros to support anti-violence centres, social assistance for abused women and medical and legal expenses for the most serious cases. One million euros instead for the costs of the structures that will host the abusers, who however will have to pay for the rehabilitation programs in society as well as other expenses related to life in the community out of their own pocket.
Apart from the fight against violence, the fundamental game for gender inclusion and for equality is played above all in the economic field with new public policies aimed at wage equality and access to work. «We are working for the Italian Government to make a commitment so that there are certain resources destined for gender rebalancing which will help Italy to re-establish points of growth with female work, to increase the birth rate in our country and also consequently to balance social security accounts», insists the senator who does not forget that «when we talk about these issues we talk about the economy exactly like when we talk about the Mes or the Recovery Fund, because employed women in Italy are still only one out of two but if female employment were full, if we could get two million more women to work, GDP would increase by one point a year».
