Accelerating Business Growth by gender Balance in Decision-Making. Women in Middle Management in Italy

Accelerating Business Growth by gender Balance in Decision-Making. Women in Middle Management in Italy

<p><i>March 2015, AFAEMME, Giulia Fedele</i>
</p><p>Equality between men and women is a fundamental right of EU Community Law and a core commitment of the European Union. If it is true that some progress has been made in the last twenty years, it is also true that despite years of rhetoric the representation of women in middle management remains unacceptably low in all the countries object of this study. The Women’s Charter launched by President José Manuel Barroso and Vice-President Viviane Reding in March 2010, which should represent the commitment of the Commission to make gender equality a reality, seems to have accomplished concrete objectives. This research paper will specifically focus on gender inequality in decision-making positions in middle management.
</p>
<div id="toc"><h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_definition"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Definition</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_barriers"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Barriers</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_limitations"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Limitations</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_state-of-play"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">State of play</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_the-future-of-management"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">The future of management</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_horizontal-and-vertical-segregation"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">Horizontal and Vertical Segregation</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_gender-pay-gap"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Gender pay gap</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_legal-framework"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Legal framework</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_quota-law"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">Quota Law</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_quota-debate"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">Quota debate</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_barriers-and-enablers"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">Barriers and enablers</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_best-practices"><span class="tocnumber">12</span> <span class="toctext">Best practices</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_recommendations"><span class="tocnumber">13</span> <span class="toctext">Recommendations</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_policies"><span class="tocnumber">14</span> <span class="toctext">Policies</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_references"><span class="tocnumber">15</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div><h2 id="w_definition">Definition</h2>
<p>With “middle management” we refer to women who are climbing the hierarchical ladder from junior management onwards and have not reached the senior and top management level (yet). A management career typically follows the pattern from an employee being promoted to junior management, and with a good performance to middle and more and more senior management roles.
</p><p>Middle management is the so called “engine room” of organizational performance: middle managers implement and execute strategy, provide the bridge between senior management and the workforce, and ensure the smooth running of the company’s operations. Middle management is also the pipeline or talent pool for senior and top management. One of the reasons for the underrepresentation of women in top management is the fact that fewer women are in the talent pool of middle management. In addition, those that are in middle management often find it difficult to advance to senior management and board positions.
</p>
<h2 id="w_barriers">Barriers</h2>
<p>Today more women than ever are present in middle management positions. However, their numbers decrease when looking at senior and top levels. This may have to do with the fact that top management brings with it a more than full time commitment, which many women see as a barrier for advancement. This last aspect is a crucial point because it shows the huge barrier women face while trying to climb the ladder: it seems that a middle management position is the highest position most women will reach in their career and it is very difficult to reach the “real power” positions above middle management- Reasons for women to stay at middle management level are multiple it may have to do with lack of specific initial training, the difficulty with combining work and family, the lack opportunities and many other obstacles and barriers women face which will be explored in detail in this Guide. Also the cultural aspect is very important and will have to be taken into account while analyzing the exiting situation.
</p><p>The goal of this study is to show that there are still too few women working in middle management positions in corporations, and that many advantages could be achieved by changing the situation. In fact, having more women in middle management is beneficial for all parties: for women as individuals who want to develop their talent, for the family, for society, states, and for private companies. Specifically, companies could benefit in accelerating their economic growth: women are an untapped source of growth that could be utilized better.
</p>
<h2 id="w_limitations">Limitations</h2>
<p>Statistics on women in middle management positions are scarce and in some countries not available at all or not in the public domain. Therefore this Guide serves to inspire and promote best practices on how to advance more women in middle management roles. Women in Italy work, but 20.1% stop when they have their first child. Women in Italy have good salaries, but the gender pay gap is 6.7%. Women in Italy climb the ladder, but they rarely reach key positions (the percentage of women CEO is 3.1% for all listed companies). Italy is not using an important part of its human capital, the women’s capital, and this represents a huge loss for the whole economy. This chapter will present a snapshot of a complex country where women’s emancipation is still prisoner of family and prejudices, but where the run-up of women managers towards gender equality is evolving day by day.
</p>
<h2 id="w_state-of-play">State of play</h2>
<p>The employment rate in Italy reflects the crisis that has been affecting the country since 2008. As the table below shows, the percentage of employed people in total, men and women, compared to the rest of Europe, is quite low. Italy is below the average European percentage (8.6% below), and this rate has been slightly worsening in the last years.The percentage of women’s employment rate is even worse: Italians are 12.7% below the European average. Despite this data, it is also true and important to point out that women’s employment rate in Italy has gone up from 45.6% in 2003 to 49.9% in 2013, and seems stuck around 49-50% over the past years 2008-2013. On the contrary, men’s employment rate has gone down from 74.6% in 2003 to 69.8% in 2013: Italian women have been relatively more successful than men.
</p><p>The number of women who work is in sharp contrast with the success rate of Italian female students: when they study, they succeed more than males, in all the fields. The Pisa Program for International Student Assessment shows that already at 15 years old girl reach higher competency levels than boys regarding both “reading abilities” and “scientific abilities”. Nevertheless, women’s participation in the workforce is one of the lowest in Europe.
</p>
<h2 id="w_the-future-of-management">The future of management</h2>
<p>It is not clear what will be the role of management in the next five years: some experts think that it will be increasing the commitment of middle management, while others believe that this will diminish and that there will be a concentration of power in the hands of top management. The role of women in management is also a controversial topic in Italy. As the report from Manageritalia7 shows, some experts think “positive” and say that, due to the soft skills which are required more and more every day, the share of female staff in middle management will increase in the next years (although slower than in other developed countries); other experts think however that women do not have sufficient social support necessary to achieve a good work-life balance, and that their participation in management will not increase.
</p><p>A report from the Aspen Institute supports with statistical data the growing share of women in middle management positions: between 2008 and 2012 the proportion of women in middle management increased from 24.1% to 28.1%8. Also, the percentage in top management of men has decreased of 4.5% between 2008 and 2013, while the proportion of women at the top increased with 17.8%9.
</p>
<h2 id="w_horizontal-and-vertical-segregation">Horizontal and Vertical Segregation</h2>
<p>Many differences are visible among women in middle management in the private sector and in the public sector. Generally, it can be said that in the public sector there are less barriers than in the private, and therefore less gender-imbalance. Nevertheless, in the private sector there is more horizontal segregation. In fact, even if women are 54% of the total workforce in the public sector, they actually work only in two fields: the educational field (filled by 77% of women) and the health field (66%). Only 15% of women have a career in diplomacy, 5.5% in the police force and 1% in the military corps10. Regarding the private sector, women are severely underrepresented in many sectors in middle management positions: in the engineering sector only 10% of middle managers are women, while in the labor consultancy field 40% are women.
</p>
<h2 id="w_gender-pay-gap">Gender pay gap</h2>
<p>In 2012 in Europe the gender pay gap was 16.5%12; in Italy it was around 6.7%13, one of the lowest.The JobPricing database of 2014 shows that the gender pay gap changes percentages
in the different management levels: the gender pay gap is lower in middle management (4.9%) than in top management (7.8%).
</p><p>Last February 2014 Italy has celebrated on the 28th of February, the European Day of gender pay equity. The day was chosen because the 28th of February is the 59th day of the year: an Italianwoman has to work 59 days more than a man to reach the same salary in one year15
</p>
<h2 id="w_legal-framework">Legal framework</h2>
<p><b>Current legislation</b>
Article 3 of the Italian Constitution clearly says that women and men have equal rights. Therefore, they also should have the same possibility of reaching the same power position. Even if Article 1 of the Code of Equal opportunities regarding gender mainstreaming has not really been enforced lately, some legislative changes have been implemented since 2009.
</p><p>It is worth to mention the Charter for Equal Opportunities and Equality at Work that has been developed and launched in 2009: an agreement between the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Equal Opportunities together with private companies and associations working together to implement gender equality with concrete actions. Another important agreement is the Agreement signed on June 30th of 2010 by the Minister of Labour, the National Board of Labour Consultants and the National Association of Labour Consultants, in order to promote equality between male and female workers. The Agreement provides a number of initiatives like: the promotion of collaboration in drafting the rules for cofinanced projects on professional training addressed to care services; the promotion of professional training to help women re-entering the employment market after long periods of maternity leave; measures to cut the cost of labor to enable employees to use all available resources like different job contracts, professional training, positive actions; the creation of a ‘women’s space’ in the media to deal with the main items of interest such as child care services and the balance between private and working life.
</p>
<h2 id="w_quota-law">Quota Law</h2>
<p>Although the Italian corporate governance code included recommendations regarding the balanced composition of the board, it was the introduction of the quota law (Act No. 120 of 12 July 2011) that made significant positive impact. The Act introduced a quota system for the appointment of directors and auditors of listed companies. It provides that the articles of association of the relevant companies must provide that the choice of directors to be elected is made on the basis of a criterion ensuring a balance between the genders. At least one-third of the directors and auditors who are appointed must be of the less-represented gender. It is important to emphasize that this criterion only applies for three consecutive mandates. Thus, this rule is to be enforced for three periods of tenure for directors and auditors (a total of nine years). Companies are given a reasonable time to comply with these provisions: for the first mandate, at least one-fifth of the directors or auditors appointed must be of the less-represented gender. In applying this provision, no distinction is made between executive and non-executive directors and these provisions also apply to companies, which have adopted the monistic system. The implementation of the law has been very successful; the share of all board seats held by women is equal to more than 22.2 percent at the end of June 2014, up from 11.6 percent in 2012. However, most women on boards still hold non-executive roles.
</p>
<h2 id="w_quota-debate">Quota debate</h2>
<p>The quota-debate, translated from Italian “pink quotas”, is a two-faced issue. A large percentage of people (women included), believes that introducing this kind of affirmative action can be considered discriminatory against men and that women are strong enough: that they do not need any “subterfuge”. Nevertheless, the opposite debate (which sees 80% of women managers who agree) uses another argument: if women studied hard and they got their masters degree with full marks if they interned in important companies and know many foreign languages, then why do they rarely accede to middle and top management positions? This is obviously by reason of many barriers that do not allow women to reach these positions eventually, even if they are smart and talented. Quotas are needed to break the vicious circle: as long as boards are mainly populated by men, they will tend to choose other men for new board positions. It is probably a legend that current recruitment policies are based on meritocracy and that “pink-quotas” would detract from that. They could stimulate companies to seek talent in new ways and, instead of adapting the profile to the man already chosen from traditional networks, be more quality-based. Guaranteeing equal representation of women in decision-making positions is crucial in order to attract female employees to all levels in a business.
</p><p>This last argument sees also many male CEOs of important Italian groups siding with it: CEOs of Intesa San Paolo, Unicredit, Telecom, Enel and Cirs, believe at the end that introducing quotas is not doing women a favour, it is doing Italy a favour, since it cannot be allowed that 50% of Italian talents remain unused.
</p>
<h2 id="w_barriers-and-enablers">Barriers and enablers</h2>
<p>As we have seen, women tend not to reach top management positions: they often stop at middle management or lower positions even if they are smart and talented. The reason they do not get promoted lies in different obstacles that will be addressed at three main levels: society, individual and working level.
</p><p>For sure, the society level is one of the most relevant in Italy. Women are integrated in working life (47% of Italian women work), but still, they have to do the “house job”. This job consists of housework and usually children’s care. A recent study developed by OCSE in 201321, shows that every woman works at home 36 hours per week, while men work only 14 hours. These 22 hours of difference show that in Italy there is one of the largest gaps in Europe, because society still tends to see women as more inclined to work at home and to wear skirts instead of wearing a black suit and be a middle manager. In this respect, it is interesting to see that 60% of Italian men think that it may be true that women can be powerful, but they are less reliable because of their “family commitment” (Sala 2008). A study conducted by Unionquadri on the condition of women in middle management in Italy shows that sometimes women don’t get the right support neither from their partner: 15.2% of women declared that their spouse expressed envy and resentment because “she was gaining more”.
</p><p>Another important barrier women still face in Italy while trying to climb the ladder is around childbirth: maternity leave, part-time jobs and the costs for child care. The birth of a baby means enormous changes in both family and working life. In Italy, about 702,000 women stopped working after having a baby for at least a month (38%). On the contrary, only 1.8% of men stopped working even if only for a while after having a baby. Regarding marital status, 90% of men in middle management are married or live together with their partner, but only 73% of women are. More dramatic is the difference when looking at women with children: 43% of female italian middle managers have to renounce having a child to keep their power position at work (and 70% of them think that having a child is a barrier to their career), while 86% of men in middle management have at least one child (Sala 2008). Of the remaining 57% of women in middle management who decided to have a child, 27.5% asked for a part time job to be able to keep climbing the ladder but at the same time to be able to be a parent. Nevertheless, it is clear that halving the working hours cannot help to reach top managerial positions: the salary goes down, the gender gap enlarges, and, most of the time, child care costs are high for a part-time middle management salary. Moreover, it is important to analyze how women are portrayed in the Italian media: females are still stereotyped and sexualized in popular entertainment, and it is very common to see beautiful women, skinny and under-dressed, working as TV showgirls. In many talk shows in fact, the host is a male accompanied by many showgirls. Inevitably, this has a profound influence on the way women see themselves and the way men see women. A similar phenomenon happens in the movies: women are underrepresented as important characters, and they mostly represent traditional roles and stereotypes (like housewife, average student, emotional persons).
</p><p>Looking at the individual level, the first aspect that must be taken into account is women’s choices for certain educational fields. Italy, in fact, is the country where the gap between male and women studying in the technical/scientific field is wider than other European countries. Women in this field only account for 9% of the total, against 14.8% of men. Moreover, numbers tend to show that women are in general more oriented to prefer women prefer a career in staff and support roles to a managerial career. This might be explained because of the potential difficulties with maintaining a healthy work life balance in positions that carry important responsibilities.
</p>
<h2 id="w_best-practices">Best practices</h2>
<p><b>Government initiatives</b>
</p>
<ul><li>Golfo-Mosca Law: At the national level, Italy has implemented some initiatives to improve the situation of women in decision-making position. For sure, the Golfo-Mosca Law is the most important one. The law requires that boards (executives and non-executives) of publicly listed companies and state-owned companies have at least 33% of each gender by 2015 and sets a target of 20% for the transition period. In the event of non-compliance, a progressive warning system can culminate in the eventual dissolution of the board.
</li><li>"WE- Women for Expo": Secondly, Italy is hosting from May to October 2015 the EXPO Milano. In the framework of the EXPO, an interesting initiative has been launched: “WE- Women for Expo”. “WE” is a contest where private companies and organizations could apply promoting their projects where the star is a woman; they could be either start-up related projects or projects whose aim is to boost women economic empowerment. The selected ideas will have a special booth at the Expo and they will be promoted thought all the social media. In the context of this research, what should be learnt from this initiative is the visibility given to women: get awarded, get to speak in public places and get to know more people are for sure among the advices of this venture.
</li></ul>
<p><b>“Women Mean Business”</b>
Thirdly, the PROGRESS project, co-funded by the European Commission, named "Women Mean Business and Economic Growth- Promoting Gender Balance in Company Boards” and coordinated by the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of Council of Ministers in collaboration with the Dondena Center for Research on Social Dynamics of the University Luigi Bocconi. The project aimed at promoting balanced representation of women and men in economic decision-making: three working papers have been published at the end of the project. Specifically, they analyzed in details the transparency of hiring processes in different stages of a woman’s career, the participation of women in top management, and the participation of women in decision-making positions. Although specific information on women in middle management positions is lacking, the report28 contains a collection of Best Practices of how to support female leadership in business. Because maintaining a good work-life balance is one of the main challenges for women in middle management, companies could support them by developing specific work-life balance policies.
</p><p><b>Company initiatives</b>
Italian private companies have put many initiatives in place to facilitate the work-life balance Montecchio, Piemonte. An enterprise in Montecchio, Piemonte (a region in Northern Italy) gives to their employee free baby-sitter. The employees under 35 have the possibility to send an SMS to the company baby-sitter who will be ready to take care after their children straight away. The main objective of the company goes beyond this initiative: they are planning to open a childcare close to the offices, with special tariffs and discounts for the employees. Regarding the so called “businessnursery school”, many enterprises in Italy have implemented this practice successfully, allowing their employees not to renounce to their full-time job. Between them we can find Artsana, Banca Popolare di Milano, Benetton, Calzedonia, Cariparma, Cartasì, Castiglioni Spa, Martini e Rossi, Telecom Italia Spa30, Todini, Tod’s, e Unicredit.
</p>
<ul><li>CoopAdriatica: Another interesting best practice regarding work flexibility has been put in place by Coop Adriatica, a wholesale company, which proposed the project “Orari e Isole”. Thanks to this initiative all the women working in the same office and with the same responsibilities and charge, can exchange their working hours as they want to follow their family schedule. It allows women to have more flexibility and therefore to be more productive. Moreover, other important Italian companies have implemented specific policies to promote more women to middle and top management
</li><li>Autogrill Group Spa: Autogrill is a catering Italian – based multinational in which women account for 61% of the total workforce. Their objective is to find the best possible solutions to gender matters: maternity, safety at work and female leadership. Autogrill has conducted both a study and a survey on the quality of the working life among the employees. They have then analyzed the percentage of women and men working in middle and top management. Since the results were not satisfying in terms of gender equality at decision making level, the company introduced new policies oriented toward conciliating family and working life, especially for those women going back to work after maternity leave.
</li><li>CARIPARMA: Cariparma is an Italian bank, that has launched in 2012 a specific training program for their women employees who want to accede to leadership positions. The program was called “Leadership and Gender” and was directed to 40 middle managers that have been instructed with specific leadership and managerial skills.
</li></ul>
<h2 id="w_recommendations">Recommendations</h2>
<p><b>Benefits</b>
There are many reasons, which could lead companies to promote more women to the top, but one of the most important ones for Italy is that women introduce diversity. As a study of the Italian Cerved Group shows, women introduce new points of views and perspectives in boardrooms and frequently demand greater accountability. The diversity aspect is particularly true in Italy: Italian companies are frequently expressing their interest in promoting diversity policies in their enterprises. The manager’s view and openness towards cultural diversity is, in fact, an important factor that plays a major role on how women are treated in an organization. Managers that believe in diversity tend to highlight more the advantages of having more women in their team (companies perform best and the work environment is more productive and innovative) even while discussing the challenges that come along. For example, one of Italy’s leading company, Pirelli, expresses in its Ethical Code that “working relationships are managed placing particular emphasis on equal opportunity, on furthering each person’s career development, and on utilizing their diversity". Eleonora Pessina, the Group Sustainability Manager, specifically says that diversity is a “competitive advantage” in Pirelli. Also, ATM, the public transportation association of Milan, says that diversity is a crucial factor for any enterprise, and represents an “extraordinary asset” which much be valorized.
</p><p>Another well-known argument to promote gender diversity is that the productivity of the enterprise goes up when there are more women at the top. The research of Mario Daniele Amore and Alessandro Minichili (Bocconi University) took into account from 2000 to 2010 2.400 Italian companies with sales volume above fifty millions Euro. The findings show that if the CEO of a company is a woman, the profits grew with 18%. Interestingly, the share of women in middle management went up to 12%.
</p>
<h2 id="w_policies">Policies</h2>
<p>Policies promoting equal opportunities for men and women include a variety of interventions. These policies were originally born as actions aimed at rebalancing women ‘s participation in the working world (affirmative action); they have been developed and refined over time and they now include a series of actions as: training courses, aimed at teaching leadership skills to women who have interrupted their professional career and intend to return to work (or who intend to go above middle management positions); mentoring programs, to promote the development of women’s careers; diversity management, as a tool to better develop human resources, encouraging innovation and maintaining competitive advantages. Given the best practices described above and given the slow pace of change of the country, it is recommended that specific actions should be put in place or enforced where already existing.
</p><p>Firstly, one of the main difficulties that women face while trying to climb the ladder to middle management positions is having a child and reconcile work and personal life. The “spiral career” is a model that combines the desire of climbing the ladder to middle and top management, but that also involves the integration between the different life dimensions: professional, domestic and social. It is the style of career which aims to find a balance between the different dimensions of life without compromising the purely professional: the "spiral" style is characteristic of women in middle management and often is typical of a discontinuity in the short term, in which there may be setbacks and delays often caused by reasons of family or personal origin (childbirth). The essential feature of the "spiral" career profile is the presence of a positive trend, despite its cyclical nature, which allows landing in positions of greater responsibility and professional commitment.
</p><p>The following specific recommendations are proposed:
</p>
<ul><li>Business-nursery care: To conciliate work and personal life, many Italian enterprises have already put in place the “business-nursery care”: they are crucial for the development of a young career and for allowing women to go back to work straight after having a child. They should be open at least 7 hours a day and all year long.
</li><li>Working from home: Also, the company should provide the possibility of working from home and of having flexible hours. The policies of the bank BNL, Birra Peroni, Chiesi Farmaceutici, Pirelli, Poste Italiane and many other italian companies should be followed by other firms; their employees are allowed to work from home at least 2 hours a day. Of course the flexible schedule takes into account that sometimes they are requested to be physically in the office certain days a week; or sometimes there is a specific working schedule that they have to follow. Nevertheless, this will definitely help women middle managers to better conciliate their personal life with work, without sacrificing too many hours of work and, in this way, without losing out on men. ValoreD, the Italian association that promotes women leadership has launched in 2011 two courses to help middle managers to conciliate private and working life. “Women Acrobats” and “Goddess inside the women” are emblematic names that reflect the difficulties women face but also the great power they have.
</li><li>Get inspired by other programs: Companies should get inspired by gender diversity programs, which worked in other companies: this could lead to the creation of new gender policies and a chain effect.
</li><li>Conduct surveys among women employees: Companies should conduct surveys and interviews among the women employees (feedback practice): analyze their needs, satisfaction and possible barriers they face while in middle management is fundamental to create a gender equal environment. Their needs must be conjugated with the company’s need to create a win-win situation. Eventually, gender diversity policies and program need to be evaluated constantly: checks on the percentage of men and women employed at top and middle management, checks on cash flows and on employees’ satisfaction are necessary to adapt and modify those plans into a successful strategy.
</li><li>Professional trainings: It is particularly important to point out the significance of professional trainings in middle management, often called “female leadership training courses”, which is growing day by day. They are usually dedicated to women who are stuck in middle management and who are not able to reach the top: experts provide the participants with technical and leadership skills, which are necessary to be promoted. ValoreD, the Italian association working on female leadership, has promoted many courses with this purpose: “Facing the conflict”, “The female power” and “Remarkable Women” are among them. Alessandra Perrazzelli, vice president of
</li></ul>
<p>the association, says: “today women training is a priority on the economic agenda. More women mean more innovation, more performance, and more market mobility”.ValoreD also promoted specific courses dedicated to men. In fact, as Rosanna d’Antona from “d’Antona&Partners” says, the “changing management” is a new concept that explains that also men have to change. They have to learn that having more women in middle and top management is beneficial for the company, and that especially now that Italy is facing years of economic crisis, the gains from female leadership must be used more than ever.
</p>
<ul><li>Get inspired by other programs: Companies should get inspired by gender diversity programs, which worked in other companies: this could lead to the creation of new gender policies and a chain effect.
</li><li>Conduct surveys among women employees: Companies should conduct surveys and interviews among the women employees (feedback practice): analyze their needs, satisfaction and possible barriers they face while in middle management is fundamental to create a gender equal environment. Their needs must be conjugated with the company’s need to create a win-win situation. Eventually, gender diversity policies and program need to be evaluated constantly: checks on the percentage of men and women employed at top and middle management, checks on cash flows and on employees’ satisfaction are necessary to adapt and modify those plans into a successful strategy.
</li><li>Professional trainings: It is particularly important to point out the significance of professional trainings in middle management, often called “female leadership training courses”, which is growing day by day. They are usually dedicated to women who are stuck in middle management and who are not able to reach the top: experts provide the participants with technical and leadership skills, which are necessary to be promoted. ValoreD, the Italian association working on female leadership, has promoted many courses with this purpose: “Facing the conflict”, “The female power” and “Remarkable Women” are among them. Alessandra Perrazzelli, vice president of the association, says: “today women training is a priority on the economic agenda. More women mean more innovation, more performance, and more market mobility”1 . ValoreD also promoted specific courses dedicated to men. In fact, as Rosanna d’Antona from “d’Antona&Partners” says, the “changing management” is a new concept that explains that also men have to change. They have to learn that having more women in middle and top management is beneficial for the company, and that especially now that Italy is facing years of economic crisis, the gains from female leadership must be used more than ever.
</li></ul>
<p>The practices of flexible working hours were born to meet requirements proposed mainly by women; nevertheless, many Italian companies have spread these policies also to male employees. In this way they also promote the value of sharing family responsibilities, and they create opportunities for fathers in middle management to manage their work commitment with attention to the family’s duties41. The project Women Mean Business also suggests the possibility to work from home when work does not require presence on-site. The chance to work from home is certainly a great opportunity to better manage personal and work life, to hold managerial positions and to ensure the continuity of commitment requested by the company. Working from home is now facilitated from the growing potential of technological tools. Finally, “Back-to-work” counseling provides women with counseling to better readjust to working life after they have been on maternity leave, because they may deal with feelings of guilt or loss of confidence in their skills.
</p>
<h2 id="w_references">References</h2>