Article 5
STATE ACTION TO OVERCOME DISCRIMINATORY
CULTURAL PATTERNS AFFECTING WOMEN
Article 5
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:
(a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and
women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary
and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the
superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;
(b) To ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of
maternity as a social function and the recognition of the common
responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their
children, it being understood that the interest of the children is the
primordial consideration in all cases.
The National Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men and
Women has made great efforts to modify the social and cultural patterns of
conduct of men and women. These efforts are a continuation of those described
in the initial report.
Together with the affirmative action taken in the political sphere
(referred to in the introduction and under articles 3 and 4), the importance
of the survey conducted, with the help of the "Images of Women" information
service, into the way in which women are portrayed in the mass media should be
highlighted. This survey was carried out in the belief that the media play an
important role in constructing and reproducing a referential cultural model
for the roles of men and women. It emerged from the survey that many women
reject the image of women conveyed by the media, and the letters received by
the Commission clearly indicated a desire to see the usual messages changed.
On the same issue, two important initiatives should be mentioned:
1. The publication of Women in the Media by the "Images of Women"
information service, containing complaints, an analyses and research on the
cultural patters which are being observed.
2. The introduction of a best and worst prize for the image which women
find most distasteful and the image which earns the highest female approval
rating.
Lastly, it should be noted that the purpose of the "Images of Women"
information service is to establish a direct line of communication between the
National Commission and the "real world" that will make it possible to express
opinions and institute a dialogue with women in order to identify and agree on
courses of action and proposals that can actually be implemented.
Article 6
SUPPRESSION OF TRAFFIC IN WOMEN AND EXPLOITATION OF
PROSTITUTION OF WOMEN
Article 6
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including
legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of
prostitution of women.
During the first nine months of 1981, 1,252 offences were recorded and
1,456 individuals were reported for exploitation or encouragement of
prostitution.
National statistics for 1990 show a decline compared with previous years
in the total number of reported offences involving physical and sexual
violence against women.
Nevertheless, the national press has frequently devoted extensive
coverage to situations of unbelievable violence, underscoring the existence of
considerable and not unjustified alarm among vast sectors of public opinion,
aggravated by the feeling that the preventive systems currently in place are
inadequate.
The problem cannot be ascribed to any one aspect of our social life. The
roots of this contemporary malaise are to be found in all the psychological
and material elements at work in the evolution of post-industrial society.
In any event, the problem of violence against women is far more serious
and complex than national statistics suggest. Everyone knows that these
statistics are based purely on data drawn from complaints lodged with or
investigations conducted by the police. The impact of female immigration on
prostitution can also be gauged from such investigations.
Published data, therefore, give an incomplete picture of the problem,
since many cases are not reported owing to a reluctance to come forward, fear
of retaliation and intimidation, or ignorance on the part of victims and those
close to them.
Problems of anti-social behaviour towards women are not restricted to
sexual abuse; they include a far longer list of behaviour patterns ranging
from physical violence (beatings) to psychological violence (intimidation).
The Ministry of the Interior and, particularly, the police authorities,
have taken action on this issue on several occasions by sending numerous
circulars to local police stations, drawing attention to the problem and
urging them to conduct a thorough campaign of prevention and monitoring in
their area, and also instructing them to comply with the proper procedures
when intervening in specific cases.
As part of these preventive efforts, prefects have been asked to place
on the agenda of the periodic meetings of the provincial committees for public
order and safety, made up of representatives of the relevant bodies and
departments, consideration of a common intervention policy for all sectors
involved with judicial protection, social and health assistance and public
education, with a view to raising the awareness of both the start of such
sectors and potential victims.
Action must be directed primarily towards remedying situations, already
known to the local authorities, in which there are recurrent breaches of the
law involving incitement to prostitution or social delinquency.
The emphasis has therefore been on taking decisive action against
individuals with criminal records who establish themselves among socially
disadvantaged groups where they encourage the exploitation of women.
At the same time, no opportunity has been missed to publicize the need
to bring any incident of violence towards or harassment of physically and
socially weaker individuals to the attention of the competent authorities.
In addition, the first Anti-Violence Centre in southern Italy was opened
in Rome on 14 March 1992. It is run by a women's association from the offices
of the provincial administration, with funding from the province and the
district council.
As early as 1988, the Department of Public Safety distributed a circular
calling for the establishment of special offices in the administrative
divisions of central police stations, linked by telephone to the emergency
services number (113), to handle complaints and interventions in cases of
violence against women.
To achieve effective harmonization in matters of intervention, female
staff or staff trained in dealing with such issues had to be assigned to this
special service.
Mindful of the delicate nature of cases subject to this kind of special
investigation, it was decided to insist that the special offices should have a
separate waiting room from the one used by members of the public reporting
other offences.
The most recent initiatives include the distribution of a booklet
produced by the Central Criminal Investigation Department, which contains a
special chapter offering suggestions on how to defend oneself against possible
attack by strangers.
To follow up these measures, the Minister of the Interior issued a
circular on 14 November 1988 and again on 4 July 1989 on measures to prevent
the abandonment of elderly persons, women and minors. The circular stipulated
that the emergency services number 113 would be made permanently available for
assisting elderly persons in case of need~ Pursuant to this circular, the
Department of Public Safety, mindful of the new role of the police in this
regard, issued rules for preventing and combating sexual violence, abuse and
ill-treatment of women and minors and abandonment of elderly persons.
In addition, new administrative instructions were issued to police
departments ordering them to step up their efforts to prosecute the offences
referred to in resolution 1983/30 of the Economic and Social Council of the
United Nations.
As a result of operations carried out by the bodies responsible for
ensuring public safety, 1,061 cases of exploitation and encouragement of
prostitution were uncovered and punished in 1989, 1,192 in 1990 and 1,252 in
1991.
The number of female police officers, whose tasks include implementing
the objectives of the above-mentioned resolution, has recently increased and
currently stands at approximately 7,600.
Measures have also been taken to increase the thoroughness and success
rate of searches for missing persons, above all minors, who have arbitrarily
escaped from the authority of their parents by leaving home. These measures
are part of ongoing cooperation with the International Criminal Police
Organization (Interpol), while work has reached an advanced stage on a
complex, computerized programme which will make it easier to monitor the
problem and keep track of the resulting initiatives, including preventive
measures.
Statistical data
To make it easier to consult the attached tables, we are providing a
summary, by region, of the 1989 and 1990 statistics on violent crimes against
women.
Since the closure of brothels in Italy, the Italian Centres for the
Protection of Women (C.I.D.D.) have been working with the Government to assist
prostitutes who have decided to change their way of life, principally by
providing them with accommodation and work opportunities.
With regard to the incidence of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) among prostitutes, as a result of extensive public information
campaigns there has been a levelling off in high risk categories but an
increase in transmission among heterosexuals, mainly because of female drug
addicts who prostitute themselves in order to obtain drugs and who seem less
amenable to appeals to take the proper precautions.
INDIVIDUALS REPORTED, INVESTIGATED AND ARRESTED
FOR RAPE
Region 1989 1990
Valle d'Aosta 1 1
Piedmont 83 50
Lombardy 84 78
Trentino-Alto Adige 21 12
Veneto 39 29
Friuli-Venezia Giulia 21 8
Liguria 20 20
Emilia Romagna 39 47
Tuscany 41 31
Umbria 2 8
Marche 22 7
Latium 85 77
Abruzzi 16 12
Campania 75 84
Molise 7 -
Basilicata 11 10
Puglia 39 51
Calabria 57 26
Sicily 132 76
Sardinia 35 22
TOTAL 830 649
INDIVIDUALS REPORTED, INVESTIGATED AND ARRESTED
FOR INDECENT ASSAULT
Region 1989 1990
Valle d'Aosta 3 4
Piedmont 80 43
Lombardy 97 63
Trentino-Alto Adige 8 7
Veneto 48 32
Friuli-Venezia Giulia 24 16
Liguria 32 26
Emilia Romagna 39 47
Tuscany 59 38
Umbria 8 5
Marche 27 17
Latium 54 40
Abruzzi 17 15
Campania 73 63
Molise 6 4
Basilicata 2 8
Puglia 51 32
Calabria 35 26
Sicily 95 47
Sardinia 41 19
TOTAL 817 547
STATISTICAL UNIT OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
INDIVIDUALS REPORTED/INVESTIGATED/ARRESTED FOR RAPE IN 1990
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
STATISTICAL UNIT OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
INDIVIDUALS REPORTED/INVESTIGATED/ARRESTED FOR RAPE IN 1989
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
STATISTICAL UNIT OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
INDIVIDUALS REPORTED/INVESTIGATED/ARRESTED FOR INDECENT ASSAULT IN 1990
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
STATISTICAL UNIT OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
INDIVIDUALS REPORTED/INVESTIGATED/ARRESTED FOR INDECENT ASSAULT IN 1989
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Article 7
PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC AND POLITICAL LIFE
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country
and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right:
(a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for
election to all publicly elected bodies;
(b) To participate in the formulation of government policy and the
implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public
functions at all levels of government,
(c) To participate in non-governmental organizations and associations
concerned with the public and political life of the country.
7.1 Right to vote and stand for election*
During the period under review, the proportion of women among Italy's
members of the European Parliament rose to 10 per cent.
Before the administrative elections, the National Commission met with
party leaders and managed to ensure the inclusion of many women in lists of
candidates.
Although women's presence remains marginal in political and
institutional life and their representation in certain sectors, such as local
government, is little more than symbolic, remaining at a far from adequate 8
per cent, there were some positive signs at the most recent administrative
elections (6 May 1990), with large numbers of women candidates on all slates.
However, there was no corresponding increase in the number of women
elected. While the increase in the number of women elected to provincial
administrations can be viewed as significant (from 172 in 1985 to 210
currently), the number of women regional councillors fell by 0.5 per cent.
The greater presence of women candidates and the increase in the number
of women elected in provincial elections, which are based on a single list,
can be seen as an indication that parties are paying more attention to the
problems of women's representation. In this sense, the meeting organized by
the National Commission with party leaders just before the elections could be
termed beneficial.
The decrease in the number of women elected in regional elections can be
attributed to the more personalized nature of the voting, which entails
tougher competition among candidates and penalizes women because they are
weaker economically and socially.
* See also introduction, annexes II to IV.
Given these still negligible results in the process of increasing
women's representation in local government to appropriate levels, the National
Commission intends to tackle the roots of the problem by drafting a proposal
for inclusion in the draft legislation on electoral and institutional reform.
On the occasion of the 1992 general elections, the National Commission
called a meeting with party leaders, the Chairman and Director-General of RAI
and the Chairman of the Parliamentary RAI Oversight Commission with a view to
promoting women candidates. It also promoted the Vote for Woman" advertising
campaign. The elections saw an increase in the proportion of women in the
Senate, from 6.6 per cent to 9.8 per cent, and a decline in the Chamber of
Deputies, from 12.8 per cent to 8.2 per cent.
7.2 Employment in the public administration
The Ministry of Finance publication Female EmploYment in the Public
Administration from 1986 to 1991 is a useful tool offering a complete overview
of this issue. It reveals an increase in the number of women employed in the
public sector, particularly in teaching.
However, women are concentrated in the middle and lower grades. There
are only 19 women directors-general out of a total of 513 (but in 1986 there
were only 4).
No woman holds the rank of ambassador or prefect first class; the total
number of women directors is 846 out of a total of ó,586.
The judiciary is a body of public officials enjoying special legal
status as a result of the independence of the judiciary laid down by the
Constitution. According to article 107 of the Constitution, judges are
appointed following a public competitive examination and promoted on the basis
of competitive examinations organized by the Ministry of Justice. However,
pursuant to laws promulgated between 1966 and 1979, certain types of promotion
are based not only on seniority but also on the number of years served in a
given post.
The principle that judges cannot be removed from office means that any
request to replace a judge must be submitted to the Higher Council of the
Judiciary, which evaluates the various candidates on the basis of seniority
and merit.
Following what some viewed as an historic decision by the Military
Judicial Council at its meeting on 6 October 1989, women were admitted to the
competitive examinations for the military judiciary. Pursuant to this
decision, a Ministerial Decree of 5 March 1990 announced a professional
examination to fill 18 junior military magistrates' posts, open to ordinary
judges. One third of the applications received were from female candidates.
The delay in applying Act No. 66 of 9 February 1963 admitting women to
all public sector jobs, including the judiciary) reflects the slow process of
adapting the military judicial system to constitutional principles. This
process finally received a major boost in the 1980s as a result of Act No. 180
of 7 May 1981 which, in making significant changes to the military judicial
system in peacetime, brought military judges' legal status and guarantees of
independence into line with those of ordinary judges, and Act No. 561 of 30
December 1988, which established a self-government body for the military
judiciary, modelled on the Higher Council of the ordinary judiciary.
Generally speaking, women judges in Italy do not experience problems
gaining admission to or advancing in their career. The Italian system of
recruitment by public competitive examination and progressive advancement
safeguards against any form of discrimination. Indeed, the increasing
percentage of successful women candidates in recent competitive examinations,
which reflects the significant rise in the number of female students attending
law school, means that one can safely assume that, in a few years from now,
the number of women judges will equal or possibly exceed the number of men
judges.
In November 1990, the Association of Italian Women Magistrates was
founded. It aims to represent all women judges and to provide a forum for
discussing their professional status and the specific nature of their role
"between equality and difference", as the Association's theme for its first
national congress so aptly put it.
The Association's initiatives include the study and elaboration of
proposals on problems of maternity leave and ongoing professional training.
Data on the ordinary judiciary, updated to 24 February 1992, are
attached. The figures show a marked increase in the number of women in the
judicial profession.
By its judgement No. 238 of 3-8 May 1990, the Constitutional Court ruled
that the question as to the constitutionality of article 3 of Act No. 27 of 19
February 1981 (measures for judicial personnel) was unfounded. Under that
article, women judges on special maternity leave could not receive the special
allowance provided for in the Act. The Court felt that, since the financial
treatment of judges was subject to independent regulations, the rules adopted
for periods of maternity leave could not be evaluated by reference to the
principle of equality (with other categories). Moreover, the issue has not
been taken up by the Court in the context of article 37 of the Constitution
(guaranteed equal wages for workers and adequate protection of working
mothers).
As regards female lawyers, it should be recalled that the right of women
to register with the Bar Association and to engage in the legal profession was
established around 1920, but it was only after the Second World War that a
significant number of women entered the profession; since then, their numbers
have increased steadily.
A study carried out in January 1990 on behalf of the Bar Association's
social security fund yielded some fairly important data, including
genderdisaggregated information.
In 1981, the total number of registered lawyers was 29,221, of whom
27,169 were men and 2,052 were women. In 1988, these figures were 27,379 and
3,574 respectively out of a total of 30,952, with a percentage variation of
0.8 per cent for men and over 74 per cent for women.
TABLE 1. MEMBERS OF THE JUDICIARY
(As at 24 February 1992)
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
It may be interesting to note the breakdown, by sex, of lawyers in the
three regions of the North, Centre and South islands:
1981 North Centre South
Men 10 587 6 864 11 828
Women 1 128 569 384
1988 North Centre South
Men 11 295 7 224 12 216
Women 1 940 911 762
Lastly, one remaining obstacle to equality was removed by the Prime
Minister's Decree No. 138 of 4 March 1991 (regulation on new height
requirements for admission to courses leading to appointment as trainee
rangers and officers in the State Forest Rangers). This Decree, overriding the
view of the National Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men
and Women that the minimum height requirement for women seeking admission to
the courses should be 1.58 metres, set the limit at 1.60 metres (as against
1.65 metres for men) on the grounds that this height is essential in order to
be able to operate efficiently in mountainous terrain.
Data concerning career positions at the level of administrative director
in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are given below.
Women are also entering the financial sector in more substantial
numbers; the figures for 1992 are given below.
7.3 Equal opportunity for men and women in the public administration
In the course of 1987, pursuant to the Ministerial Decree of 25 July
1986, the commitment made by the Government in the first interdepartmental
agreement began to take shape when qualified individuals joined the Commission
to tackle the issues of the status of women in public employment and equality
of opportunity. This historic development paved the way for the Ministerial
Decree of 18 October 1988 which, as mentioned in the introduction, set up the
third section of the commission for monitoring expenditure flows, with the
functions of a civil service monitoring board.
TABLE 2. WOMEN IN SENIOR POSTS IN THE STATE POLICE
Grade Number
Women of staff Percentage
Senior Director 3 182 1.6
Director 31 626 4.9
Principal Vice-Commissioner R.E.* 16 68 23.5
Deputy Principal Commissioner 85 971 8.7
Divisional Commissioner 61 195 31.2
Commissioner 262 718 36.4
Deputy Commissioner 96 302 31.7
Trainee Commissioner 68 166 40.9
TOTAL 622 3 228 19.26
* R.E. = grade scheduled for abolition.
Chief Inspector 126 951 13.2
Principal Inspector 1 1 463 0.1
Inspector 128 1 580 8.1
Deputy Inspector 471 1 898 24.8
TOTAL 726 5 892 12.3
Deputy/Assistant 6 350 72 481 8.7
Health and Sanitation Officers 50 213 23.4
TABLE 3. MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONNEL BY AGE GROUP
(Reference year: 1991)
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
TABLE 4. MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR
DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONNEL BY AGE GROUP
(Reference year: 1991)
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
TABLE 5. CAREER POSITIONS AT ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR LEVEL
(As at 1 January 1992)
In service as at
1 January
Number of
Grade or level Code staff Men Women
Director-General level A A9DA
Director-General level B A9DB
Director-General level C A9DC 2 2
Senior Director A9DO 9 8 3
Director A90E 18 11 9
Inspector General r.e. A9FA XXXX 2 4
Divisional director r.e. A9FB XXXX - -
STAFF OF THE INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL SECTOR
(approx. 360 from lending and financial institutions)
Breakdown of financial sector
personnel M W TOTAL %
Director 3 355 33 3 388 1.32
Senior officials 38 383 1 884 40 267 15.73
Senior managers 6 159 638 6 797 2.65
Managers 9 347 1 270 10 617 4 15
Office managers 28 719 7 238 35 957 14.01
Assistant office managers 39 675 15 007 54 682 21.36
Heads of department/section 25 668 14 820 40 488 15.81
1st category employees 29 135 16 744 45 879 17.92
2nd category employees 5 451 1 292 6 743 2.63
Chief clerical officer 753 3 756 0.30
Clerical officers 6 611 313 6 924 2.70
Specialized workers 624 1 625 0.24
Workers 616 2 618 0.24
Night watchmen 603 2 605 0.24
Other auxiliary staff 1 102 590 1 692 0.66
TOTALS 196 201 59 837 236 038 100.00
76.63 23.37 100.00
The third section is doubly important, since it not only provides a
political and organizational solution to the problems of the distribution and
balance of work within the commission, but also deals with problems relating
to equal opportunity and to the employment situation in the Mezzogiorno.
The third section was given the following functions:
- To acquire quantitative and qualitative data on the presence of women in
the various civil service sectors, and data on their corresponding
geographical distribution, with a view to preparing the report to Parliament
provided for in article 16 of Act No. 93 of 29 March 1983.
- To produce a summary and an analysis of equal opportunity in the public
administration, with particular reference to mechanisms for recruitment,
access, career development, promotion and professional training and to
problems relating to the organization of work and to working conditions and
environment.
- To produce a summary and an analysis of the employment situation in the
Mezzogiorno, with particular reference to women's work and to professional
jobs in the expanded public sector, in order to put forward specific proposals
for the creation of new jobs and the rationalization of others.
These functions were assigned later than those assigned to the civil
service monitoring board by the Ministerial Decree of 25 July 1986 mentioned
above. Part of the commission's work during 1988 was devoted to carrying out
these functions, ably assisted by the special inter-sectional group
established in March 1987.
As part of the programme of work for the period 1988-1990 already
proposed and approved by the monitoring board in plenary meeting, a number of
priority projects were formulated which can be summarized as follows:
1. A pilot survey into the distribution of civil service posts;
2. Verification of the establishment of equal opportunity committees in
the public administration, pursuant to the contractual agreements for the
period 1985-1987, in order to promote and support the initiatives which those
committees are to carry out;
3. Verification of legislative norms and/or forms of conduct that have a
discriminatory effect on the full achievement of gender equality in the civil
service;
4. Research to verify the allocation of positions of responsibility;
5. Examination of member States' regulation of access to sectors
affected by the application of rulings of the European Court of Justice.
In April 1988, pursuant to item 2, a review was undertaken of the
progress made in establishing equal opportunity committees in State
administration and bodies.
The aforementioned review was followed in July 1988 by a directive,
addressed to State administration and bodies by the Minister for the Civil
Service, which stressed the importance of the equal opportunity committees,
and the corresponding activities provided for in the decrees implementing the
contractual agreements for the public sector, and which noted that equal
opportunity was an issue of international importance and that, at the European
Community level in particular, information on the action taken by member
States was requested by a special committee established for that purpose.
It was considered that the Commission's equal opportunity activities
should also be mentioned specifically in the report to Parliament on the state
of the public administration.
With particular reference to the data given in the aforementioned report
under the heading "absenteeism", it was proposed that, in order to avoid
putting a negative interpretation on justified absences from work, a
distinction should be made between leave of absence for social reasons
(maternity leave, military service, etc.), leave of absence for personal
reasons (illness, spa treatments, etc.) and unjustified absences subject to
loss of remuneration.
Other data required in the report (for instance, on training) should be
broken down by sex in order to identify any causes of discrimination against
female staff.
Preparatory work on the distribution of civil service posts continued in
1988 with a view, inter alia, to identifying any discrimination against female
staff in the allocation of specific tasks which constitute an important
addition to the normal functions of the job.
Lastly, on the basis of guidelines provided at the community level and
in union agreements for the period 1985-1987, the monitoring board began to
study a programme of affirmative action for the achievement of gender equality
in the public sector. This programme is to receive inputs subsequently from
the equal opportunity committees already operating in the various ministries.
Proposals relating to this programme and to the distribution of posts
mentioned above, which were formulated at the beginning of 1989, were conveyed
to the Minister for Civil Service.
The issues of training and retraining and their decisive role in the
labour market and the civil service were discussed at length, in line with the
recommendations made by the European Community working group (in which one of
the monitoring board's delegations took part) at its meeting on women in
senior civil service positions held in the Netherlands on 6 and 7 June 1988.
The conclusions reached by the working group offer guidance on the action to
be taken by member States of the European Community. The commission's future
activities will have to conform to those guidelines in the area of equal
opportunity.
On the operational level, starting next year these activities will be
assigned permanently to the third section, rather than the present
inter-sectional group. Because of the need, raised repeatedly in plenary
meeting, to reconsider the advisability of giving the commission on autonomous
organizational structure at some later stage, the third section must now
contribute functionally and organically to carrying out all the functions
entrusted to the monitoring board.
For the period 1990-1991, the third section of the commission for
monitoring expenditure flows, with the functions of a civil service monitoring
board, has adopted the following programme:
1. Activation of the pilot survey into the distribution of civil service
posts.
2. Verification of the establishment of equal opportunity committees in
the public administration, pursuant to the contractual agreement for the
periods 1985-1987 and 1988-1990, in order to promote and support the
initiatives which those committees are to carry out.
3. A programme of meetings with the aforementioned committees, by like
sectors, in order to build more stable links.
4. Verification of legislative norms and/or forms of conduct that have a
discriminatory effect on the full achievement of gender equality in the civil
service, and proposals for the amendment of legislation and the suppression of
such conduct.
5. Examination of member States' regulation of access to sectors
affected by the application of rulings of the European Court of Justice.
6. Proposals for establishing an institutionalized link between the
National Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men and Women in
the Prime Minister's Office, the National Committee for the implementation of
the principles of equal treatment and equality of opportunity between male and
female workers, attached to the Ministry of Labour, and the Department for
Community Policy.
7. Request to participate, with observers, in meetings of the Standing
Conference of Directors-General and of the heads of ministerial coordinating
bodies.
8. Establish a presence in or information links with European Community
bodies.
9. Analyse (including with the help of special research promoted jointly
with the first section or entrusted to outside experts) the numbers of men and
women in the various occupational groups and the gender disaggregated
allocation of functions involving different or more senior groups, in order to
verify the impact of such allocation on professional advancement in terms of
the existence of any discrimination against women workers. This will be done
with the help of separate, disaggregated data for each sector.
10. Acquisition of quantitative and qualitative data on the numbers of
women in the civil service, for the preparation of the report to Parliament
provided for in article 16 of Act No. 93 of 29 March 1983.
11. Study of issues relating to the various aspects of women's
employment in the civil service, particularly entry mechanisms, organization
of work, working conditions and environment, promotion, professional training
and career development.
12. Proposals for affirmative action to improve human resources
management in the public administration, paying particular attention to female
staff.
With regard to this last item, most importantly, the following proposals
have been made:
(a) That the composition of all organs, particularly examination boards
for admission and/or promotion, should be such as to guarantee the balanced
representation of men and women;
(b) That particular attention should be paid to training, inter alia, by
preparing targeted vocational training projects, with possible access to the
European Social Fund.
To this end, a special agreement will be put into effect with the School
of Public Administration.
13. As part of the additional functions assigned by the Ministerial
Decree of 18 October 1988, acquisition and analysis of data on employment in
the Mezzogiorno, with particular reference to female employment and also to
existing norms.
14. Publication of this programme in the quarterly bulletin of the Civil
Service Department.
15. Initiatives conducive to early approval by Parliament of the bill on
affirmative action and its application in the public administration.
Article 8
PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN REPRESENTATION OF THE STATE
AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
Article 8
States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to women, on
equal terms with men and without any discrimination, the opportunity to
represent their Governments at the international level and to participate in
the work of international organizations.
Since the previous report, there has been a substantial increase in the
numbers of women in the diplomatic service, although, for reasons of
seniority, women have yet to reach the highest ranks. In this connection, we
reproduce the following data referring to 1 January 1992.
PERSONNEL IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE
Total Women
Ambassadors 32 -
Ministers plenipotentiary, class I 32 -
Ministers plenipotentiary, class II 159 3
Embassy counsellors 224 10
Legation counsellors 144 16
Legation first secretaries )
Legation secretaries) 243 24
Diplomatic volunteers)
In January 1991, Italian staff working in international organizations
were as follows:
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe:
23 staff members, of whom five were women (3 A-4s and 2 A-3s)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:
14 staff members, of whom four were women (1 P-5, 2 P-4s and 1 P-3)
United Nations:
62 staff members, of whom 13 were women (2 P-2s, 5 P-3s, 4 P-4s and 2 P-5s)
Pood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:
126 staff members, of whom 37 were women (2 P-1s, 14 P-2s, 15 P-3s, 3 P-4s and
3 P-5s)
Council of Europe:
36 staff members (grade A), of whom 14 were women.
Article 9
QUESTIONS OF NATIONALITY
Article 9
1. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire,
change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that
neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during
marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her
stateless or force upon her the nationality of the husband.
2. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect
to the nationality of their children.
The new law on nationality, Act No. 91 of 5 February 1992, is due to
enter into force on 15 August 1992. It contains no discriminatory provisions
with regard to the nationality of men and women or the transmission of
nationality to children.
This law confirms the earlier trend, described in the previous report,
achieved through a long series of rulings issued by the Constitutional Court
in relation to article 2 (6) and aimed at affirming the principle of equality
among persons and within the family, including equality in respect of the
transmission of nationality.
Article 10
QUALITY IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
Article 10
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men
in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of equality
of men and women:
(a) The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access
to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational establishments
of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas, this equality shall be
ensured in pre-school, general, technical, professional and higher technical
education, as well as in all types of vocational training,
(b) Access to the same curricula, the same examinations, teaching staff
with qualifications of the same standard and school premises and equipment of
the same quality,
(c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and
women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation
and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in
particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmes and the
adaptation of teaching methods,
(d) The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and other study
grants;
(e) The same opportunities for access to programmes of continuing
education, including adult and functional literacy programmes, particularly
those aimed at reducing, at the earliest possible time, any gap in education
existing between men and women,
(f) The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization
of programmes for girls and women who have left school prematurely,
(g) The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and
physical education;
(h) Access to specific educational information to help to ensure the
health and well-being of families, including information and advice on family
planning.
As envisaged in the school contract, a Committee on Equality of
Opportunity has been set up in the Ministry of Education .
At its meeting on 14 June 1989, the Committee defined the main criteria
and elements of its programme of work.
Having adopted an advanced notion of "equality of opportunity", public
education policies are focusing on two convergent areas. In the first area, an
increasingly close link is being made between affirmative action policy and
educational policies.
This relates explicitly to:
- The draft plan of action of the National Commission for the Achievement
of Equality between Men and Women, set up in the Prime Minister's Office in
1986, mentioned in sections 5 to 10. Close cooperation with the National
Commission is a priority of the Committee's programme of work.
- European Community policies, as established by the Equal Opportunities
for Women and Men - Medium-Term Community Action Programme 1986-1990, by the
recommendation of the Council of the European Communities of 13 December 1984
on the promotion of positive action for women (84/635/EEC), by the resolution
of the Council and of the Ministers for Education containing an action
programme on equal opportunities for girls and boys in education (85/C166/01)
and by the many resolutions of the European Parliament.
- Global deliberations, as reflected in the recommendations of the World
Conference organized by the United Nations in July 1985 at Nairobi.
Educational strategies and school policies have always been of
fundamental importance to the question of the changing status of women in the
modern world. From a brief historical perspective, it may be said that, as
early as the eighteenth century, the issue of women's education and culture
foreshadowed and, in specific ways, influenced the various strategies on the
status of women which have come into play throughout the longest revolution,
and that it has often served as the litmus test for real deficiencies. Women's
access to culture, the nature and direction of education for women and girls,
cultural support for a new concept of maternity (almost always more preached
than practised and the cost-effectiveness, in the labour market, of the
education gained are issues that have characterized women's struggles in
recent centuries. Despite their limitations, the results achieved are still
the most striking indication of the social consolidation of a diversified
range of female images.
At a time of universal schooling, women's formal equality of access to
education seems assured from the standpoint of both student and teacher; women
have taken full advantage of the opportunities offered by the extension of
compulsory schooling and account for a very high percentage of the increase in
the demand for schooling at the senior secondary school and university levels.
In addition to quantitative equality, however, a fundamental qualitative
issue remains open and pending.
The substantial equality of access to education, the prevalence of mixed
classes and the consolidation of undifferentiated processes of school social
integration for boys and girls represent a unique and in all respects highly
positive revolution in the history of humankind. This revolution has taken
This is a social task that schools, by virtue of their function in
society, cannot avoid and to which they must apply themselves, aware of the
educational and cultural challenge that it presents. This task includes
encouraging and validating current theoretical research, particularly by
women.
The second area concerns the extensive female presence in teaching.
According to a view which has become widespread in feminist thinking, women's
quantitative presence in teaching has not been matched by the emergence of a
corresponding female social authority, even though the effect of that presence
in terms of public awareness of the commitment made by women should be
stressed. In line with a trend observed in the most diverse spheres in
response to feminization processes, society seems to have reacted to the
feminization of teaching by downgrading the prestige of the teaching
profession. At a time when women are complaining about their absence from
financial and political decision-making and from the cultural sphere, such a
trend seems contradictory and needs to be overcome. The achievement of social
equality for women must not be limited to securing a large female presence in
schools; it must also involve questioning the relationship between the
feminization of teaching and the role of the teaching profession as a cultural
guide for our times. This was also clear from the most recent union contract,
which led to the establishment of the Committee.
There has been no shortage of analyses into the relationship between the
current characteristics of women's presence in the teaching profession and the
educational scenario of gender neutrality mentioned earlier, are recognized
that a system of teacher training which is overly attached to passive
transmission and repetition is one reason why women's creativity and
experience are inadequately reflected in the school culture. At all events,
the Committee has identified, through these reflections, an aspect which has
been stressed many times, namely, the link between an equal opportunity policy
reformulated in a context so ambitious and so new that it goes beyond simply
endorsing the male experience, and the provision of opportunities, conditions
and guarantees for increasing the professional value of teachers by enhancing
perceptions of the social productivity and prestige of the school system.
The range of actions suggested by such a conception of equal opportunity
policy underlies the Committee's efforts to become an integral part of
projects supported by the Ministry of Education. More specifically, the issues
involved, which have already begun to evolve into possible areas for action
and work by the Committee, can be listed as follows:
1. The introduction of issues related to the culture of equality into
the definition or redefinition of teaching goals and curricula in the various
types of schools: from those normally under discussion, such as guidelines for
nursery schools and the new senior secondary schools, to those which, although
recent, have not covered this aspect, such as elementary schools and junior
secondary schools. The balance struck between general teaching requirements
more in tune with the psychological aspects of education and the introduction
of specific themes and information contents will clearly differ from one type
of school to another and will have to be carefully measured.
European Social Fund, a formulation of the criteria of the European Community
IRIS project is being suggested in order to introduce these initiatives.
6. The Committee has requested that the next national school conference
take up these issues in a systematic manner. Consequently, as it F
draw up its own document, it has put some initial proposals to the Minister.
7. Lastly, on the basis of its initial experience, the Committee will
have to raise the question of optimum conditions for carrying out its own
work, in close coordination with the deliberations planned by the National
Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men and Women with the
various commissions established at the regional and local levels and with the
parliamentary bills put forward on this point.
It should also be noted that on 21 and 22 November 1991, the Ministry of
Education convened a national study meeting on the topic: "Equality and
discrimination, responsibility and prejudice: women in school administration".
This discussion is followed by some statistics on the presence of women
in the central school administration, as well as some data on employment as a
function of educational qualification.
There are a total of 1,565 women in the central school administration,
out of a total of 2,951 serving employees.
This figure becomes interesting if we look at the lowest grades:
M W
Non-career auxiliary staff 175 69
Non-career executive staff 268 507
Non-career middle managers 144 676
Non-career senior managers 116 145
Managers (grade scheduled for abolition) 43 21
Inspectors 411 122
Directors 128 25
Table 1
Number Percentage
Italian population in 1990 M 27 684 000 48.6
W 29 253 000 51.4
M/W 56 937 000 100.0
Upper secondary school certificates awarded M 198 768 47 7
1988-1989 academic year W 217 940 52.3
M/W 416 708 100.0
University degrees awarded 1989 academic year M 44 910 51.2
W 42 804 48.8
M/W 87 714 100.0
Source: ISTAT.
Table 2. Employed members of labour force by sex:1985-1990
Number in thousands Percentage
M W M/W M W M/W
1985 13 982 6 753 20 735 67.4 32.6 100.0
1986 13 953 6 903 20 856 66.9 33.1 100.0
1987 13 845 6 991 20 836 66.4 33.6 100.0
1988 13 990 7 113 21.103 66.3 33.7 100.0
1989 13 851 7 153 21.004 65.9 34.1 100.0
1990 13 952 7 353 21.305 65.5 34.5 100.0
Labour force: persons aged 14 to 70, employed or seeking employment.
Source: ISTAT.
Table 3
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 4
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 5
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 6 Ratio of women/men in competitive examinations
for directors and managers
Men Women %Women
Senior Directors (4 latest examinations)
Applications 121 32 20.9
Candidates 106 30 22.0
Passing 9 1 1.0
Directors (10 latest examinations)
Applications 777 292 27.3
Candidates 509 182 26.3
Not passing 163 76 31.7
Passing 45 10 18.2
Qualified 21 6 22.2
Inspectors (21 latest examinations)
Applicants 1 204 1 104 47.8
Candidates 375 523 58.2
Not passing 316 493 60.9
Average passing grade 37.9 38.7 -
Number passing 33 24 42.1
Non-career administrative directors and
accountancy directors (9 latest examinations)
Applications 729 1 169 61.5
Candidates 105 165 61.1
Not passing 52 87 62.5
Average passing grade 46.9 49.2 -
Passing 13 23 63.8
Qualified 33 53 61.6
Source: Personnel Department, Division III.
Table 7 Staffing of the Ministry of Education by region, grade and sex, 1991
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 8 Percentage distribution of staff of the Ministry of Education by
region, grade and sex, 1991
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 9 Percentage distribution of staff of the Ministry of Public Education
by region, grade and sex, 1991
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 10 Percentage of female staff in the Ministry of Education by region,
grade and sex, 1991
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 11 Percentage of female staff, by grade, in the Ministry of Eduction
and in all Ministries, 1991
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Table 12 Ratio of women/men in separations from service
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
It is noteworthy that there is considerable interest in higher
education, particularly at the university level. The following table provides
information on the overall number of students enrolled at Italian
universities, and the percentage of women students by faculty.
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
Article 11
EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE FIELD OF EMPLOYMENT
Article 11
1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on
a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:
(a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings,
(b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including the
application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment,
(c) The right to free choice of profession and employment, the right to
promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of service and the
right to receive vocational training and retraining, including
apprenticeships, advanced vocational training and recurrent training,
(i) The right-to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal
treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as equality of treatment
in the evaluation of the quality of work,
(e) The right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement,
unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age and other incapacity to work,
as well as the right to paid leave,
(f) The right to protection of health and to safety in working
conditions including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction.
2. In order to prevent discrimination against women on the grounds of marriage
or maternity and to ensure their effective right to work, States Parties shall
take appropriate measures:
(a) To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on
the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination in
dismissals on the basis of marital status,
(b) To introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable social
benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances,
(c) To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting social
services to enable parents to combine family obligations with work
responsibilities and participation in public life, in particular through
promoting the establishment and development of a network of child-care
facilities,
(d) To provide special protection to women during pregnancy in types of
work proved to be harmful to them.
3. Protective legislation relating to matters covered in this article shall be
reviewed periodically in the light of scientific and technological knowledge
and shall be revised, repealed or extended as necessary.
In the employment field, the period from 1989 to mid-1990 was
characterized by sweeping legislation and intensive collective bargaining with
a view to implementing the principle of equality.
This principle, which is embodied in article 37 of the Constitution, was
already specifically regulated by Act No. 903/1977, which was quoted a number
of times and discussed at length in the initial report of the Government of
Italy on the implementation of the Convention.
Moreover, while implementation of the Act over the past 10 years has
shown its effectiveness for promoting and increasing recognition of the
equality of rights and treatment of men and women in employment, it has also
pointed up some gaps, particularly as regards the potential for effective
legal action, and some inadequacies in eliminating obstacles which arise
before a woman even arrives in the workplace.
With regard to the former, the positive impact of Act No. 903 is
particularly evident in the steady increase in employment opportunities for
women. In 1989, the female labour force passed the 8 million mark,
representing over 36 per cent of the total labour force, while employed women
accounted for nearly 34 per cent of the total employed population. These two
ratios had never been observed in our country in the past.
With regard to the negative aspects, the common experience of the member
countries of the European Community has shown the need to bolster
anti-discrimination legislation with measures to overcome the de facto
disparities that impede the attainment of genuine equality.
Moreover, in line with the EEC Recommendation of 13 December 1984 on the
promotion of positive action for women, the Italian Parliament adopted the
earlier-mentioned Act No. 125/1991 on affirmative action for the achievement
of equality between men and women. This Act has some particularly important
features, including:
- Legitimization of "reverse discrimination", defined as measures for
women only, designed to remove de facto obstacles to the achievement of gender
equality and equal opportunity. Affirmative action is encouraged by covering
some or all of the corresponding costs;
- Improvement of procedural aspects. Article 4 of the Act, after
reintroducing the concept of indirect discrimination, defined as "any
prejudicial treatment resulting from the adoption of criteria which place
workers of either sex at a proportionally greater disadvantage", partially
reverses the burden of proof: when the claimant has furnished sufficient
evidence that he or she has suffered discrimination on grounds of sex, the
author of the act or conduct in question must prove that there were valid
reasons for the unequal treatment. The Act also admits so-called "statistical
evidence, i.e., evidence of a situation which, from the statistical
standpoint, is systematically prejudicial to one or other sex, as evidence of
discrimination that would warrant reversing the burden of proof;
- Creation of the post of equality adviser (already provided for in the
current laws governing regional and central employment commissions) at the
provincial level, within the framework of district employment commissions.
Equality advisers are responsible not only for monitoring compliance with the
principles of equality, particularly as regards access to employment, but also
for bringing legal action on behalf of female workers who have been
discriminated against and class action suits where the workers who have been
victims of discrimination are not immediately and directly identifiable;
- This entire body of law is backed by effective penalties (such as
suspension of financial benefits, exclusion from bidding for public works
contracts, etc.) likely to discourage employers from discriminatory conduct.
Under Act No. 149/1990 on the adaptation of the staffing of the State
Forestry Rangers Corps, competitive examinations for this career were opened
to women, who had previously been excluded, thereby eliminating the unequal
treatment which had persisted because the Corps is organized like an army
corps. In particular, the Act provides that conditions for admission to the
competitive examinations must be established by decree, after hearing the
opinion of the National Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men
and Women.
On the basis of various parliamentary proposals, Act No. 379 was adopted
on 11 December 1990, providing for a maternity allowance to be paid to
selfemployed professional women.
The Act supplements the implementation of EEC Directive 615 of 1986 on
gender equality and the protection of self-employed women during pregnancy and
motherhood. Act. No. 546/1987 had already provided for self-employed women
(women farmers, craftswomen, women shopkeepers) to receive a maternity
allowance for the period beginning two months before and ending three months
after the birth of a child, fixed at the level of the contractual wage for
women wageearners in the corresponding sectors payable by the social security
system. This was done to discourage self-employed women from working
immediately before and after giving birth. The allowance is also payable in
the event of the adoption or foster placement of a young child.
Self-employed professional women are likewise paid an allowance, also
for a total of five months, this time calculated on the basis of the
occupational earnings declared to the income tax authorities during the
previous year by the woman concerned. The allowance is paid by the autonomous
fund of the respective professional association.
In the context of collective bargaining, the latest round of contract
renewals supplemented the institutional organization of equality bodies. Such
contracts generally provide for the establishment of equality commissions at
various levels, including the company level, with responsibility for promoting
affirmative action and for ensuring that discrimination does not occur.
The National Commission for the Achievement of Equality between Men and
Women has had occasion to intervene in a number of cases, at the request of
trade unions or other socio-political forces to which such discrimination has
been reported.
It seems appropriate to focus particular attention on the action taken
to eliminate discrimination in the context of a special form of family
community property in agriculture (known as the "rules") in use in certain
parts of the Veneto region.
According to customs which go very far back in time, ownership of this
community property and the rights associated with it, including those of
external representation, were restricted to men and could be passed on only
through the male line.
These rules have been amended and the head of household, whether male or
female, is now recognized as the owner of the community property.
11.1 Affirmative action
The year 1991 was a particularly fruitful one for women workers, not
only because the positive trend in female employment was confirmed, but also
because of the measures and policies adopted, which prompted positive
expectations for the near future. The period of time between the discussion of
the initial report on the implementation of the Convention and the present has
been particularly productive from the standpoint of both legislative and legal
initiatives aimed at achieving full and effective equality in the workplace
between male and female workers and eliminating all direct or indirect
discrimination.
Legislative action has been two-pronged: expansion of employment
opportunities and promotion of functional activities for improving the skills
and training of female workers.
The two basic laws adopted in this area (Act No. 125 of 1991 and Act No.
215 of 1992) dovetail with the policies already adopted with a view to
implementing the principle of equality through the practical application of
mechanisms and measures known as "affirmative action for women", in order to
remove de facto obstacles to the achievement of equal opportunity. The
provisions of Act No. 903 of 1977 were incorporated into these basic laws.
According to article 1 (2) of Act No. 125, affirmative action is aimed at:
(a) Eliminating the de facto disparities faced by women in education and
vocational training, access to employment, career development, professional
life and periods of mobility;
(b) Encouraging the diversification of women's career choices, in
particular, and of training tools; and facilitating access to self-employment
and to business and occupational training for self-employed women and business
women;
(c) Eliminating such conditions, organization and distribution of work
as have a differential impact on wage-earners according to their sex, to the
detriment of training, career development or salaries and remuneration;
(d) Promoting the integration of women in professional activities and at
levels in which they are underrepresented, particularly in high-technology
sectors and at the leadership level;
(e) Promoting, inter alia, through a different organization of labour,
working conditions and working hours, a balance between family and
professional responsibilities and a fairer division of these responsibilities
between the two sexes.
Affirmative action is expected to be promoted by equality and equal
opportunity centres at the national, local and company level; by public and
private employers; by vocational training centres; by trade unions and local
authorities; and by the National Committee for the implementation of the
principles of equal treatment and equality of opportunity between male and
female workers, established within the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
The National Committee is therefore recognized in law and, as confirmation of
its fundamental role, is to be chaired by the Minister of Labour and Social
Security.
Its members include representatives of labour and management, women's
associations and movements, experts on the question and representatives of the
public authorities.
The National Committee has the express obligation of taking all
appropriate action for the elimination of discriminatory conduct and
obstacles, not only in the area of information and awareness-building among
the public at large and among the public and private sectors involved in equal
opportunity policies but also in the more immediate area of monitoring the
implementation of existing legislation and progress in the definition and
implementation of affirmative action projects.
In this connection, it is worth mentioning article ó of the Act, which
states that the Committee shall take all appropriate action to ensure
continuing equality of opportunity and, in particular, shall:
(a) Formulate proposals on general issues relating to the attainment of
the goals of equality and equal opportunity and for the development and
amendment of existing legislation that has a direct impact on women's working
conditions;
(b) Inform and alert public opinion about the need to promote equal
training and career opportunities for women;
(c) Promote the adoption of affirmative action by the public
institutions responsible for employment policy and by the public and private
sectors referred to in article 2;
(d) Give a majority opinion on the financing of affirmative action
projects and monitor ongoing projects by ensuring their proper implementation
and outcome;
(e) Draw up codes of conduct in order to specify rules of conduct that
are consistent with equality and to detect manifestations, even indirect
manifestations, of discrimination;
(f) Monitor the implementation of existing equality legislation;
(g) Propose solutions to collective disputes by encouraging the parties
concerned to adopt affirmative action plans in order to eliminate longstanding
discrimination and introduce equality of opportunity for female workers;
(h) Request the Labour Inspectorate to obtain, in the work place,
information on the situation of male and female employment in terms of
recruitment, training and career development;
(i) Promote adequate representation of women in national and local
public bodies with jurisdiction in matters of employment and vocational
training;
(1) Draft the report referred to in article 10.
The equality advisers provided for in Act No. 863/84 (as indicated in
the initial report), which lays down their specific functions, means of action
and powers, are also assigned an important role.
According to article 8 of Act No. 125, equality advisers are public
employees and have the obligation to report to the judicial authorities any
offences which come to their attention during the exercise of their functions.
Equality advisers, at their respective levels, are members of the equality
bodies existing within local, regional and provincial authorities. In
performing their tasks, equality advisers may request the Labour Inspectorate
to obtain, in the workplace, information on the situation of male and female
employment in terms of recruitment, training and career development.
Act No. 125 also contains basic provisions on the financing and
implementation of affirmative action. Article 2 provides that:
1. Enterprises, including cooperatives, consortia, public economic
institutions, trade unions and vocational training centres that adopt the
affirmative action projects referred to in article 1 may request the Ministry
of Labour and Social Security to grant them a full or partial refund of the
costs associated with the implementation of these projects, with the exception
of the projects referred to in article 3.
2. The Minister of Labour and Social Security, after hearing the opinion
of the Committee referred to in article 5, shall approve affirmative action
projects for the funding described in paragraph 1 and, under the same
provision, shall authorize the corresponding expenditures. Implementation of
the projects referred to in paragraph 1 must in any case begin within the two
months following the granting of authorization.
3. A decree promulgated by the Minister of Labour and Social Security,
by agreement with the Minister of the Treasury, established the procedures for
submitting applications, allocating funds and setting project deadlines. In
each case, grants are allocated subject to verification of the implementation
of the affirmative action project, or of parts thereof, depending on its
complexity. Failure to implement the project results in loss of the grant and
repayment of any sums already received. In the event of partial
implementation, the grant is forfeited for the unimplemented part, which is
assessed on the basis of criteria determined by the decree referred to in this
paragraph.
One very important provision is the obligation on companies with more
than 100 employees to draft a report, at least every two years, on the
situation of their male and female staff in each occupational group in terms
of recruitment, training, career development level, promotions, other forms of
mobility, assistance from the unemployment fund, dismissals, early retirement
and retirement, and the actual remuneration paid.
In accordance with these provisions, the Minister of Labour issued two
special decrees on 8 and 22 July 1991, by virtue of which companies are
provided with the necessary information on the preparation of the report, the
time-limits for submission of projects and the procedures for allocating
grants for such projects.
For information on innovations in the area of the legal protection of
female workers' rights, we refer to section 2.3 above.
11.2 Affirmative action for self-employed women
Article 1 (2) (b) of Act No. 125/91 is particularly important because it
includes access to self-employment and the development of female
entrepreneurship among the objectives of affirmative action.
This approach is consistent with community policies and, more
particularly, with the EC Commission's guidelines for promoting women's work
not only as employees but also as self-employed workers.
The general provisions of the Act were later spelled out in greater
detail in Act No. 215/1992 on affirmative action for women entrepreneurs,
adopted on 25 February 1992.
The express purpose of this Act is to pursue and promote equality and
equal opportunity in economic and business activity, especially through legal
provisions aimed at encouraging the creation and development of businesses,
including cooperatives run by women; promoting business training; upgrading
the skills and qualifications of women entrepreneurs; and facilitating access
to credit for enterprises run by women or staffed predominantly by women in
the most innovative branches of the various production sectors.
This measure is a very important one, given the limited number of women
currently working in the sector and the need for affirmative action to
overcome existing difficulties, both subjective and objective.
The Act provides not only for specific economic incentives (article 4)
and soft loans (article 8), thanks also to the existence of a national fund
for the development of businesses run by women (article 3), but also for the
establishment of a committee on female entrepreneurship (article 10).
Progress in implementing the Act is monitored by means of an annual
report by the Government to Parliament.
11.3 Sexual harassment in the workplace
In recent years, prompted by Community analyses and instruments in this
field, we have seen the first institutional action against sexual harassment
in the workplace.
Awareness that sexual harassment violates not only the dignity of the
person who is harassed but also the fundamental rights to work, to health and
to security in the workplace, is becoming increasingly widespread,
particularly among female workers.
The first systematic research in this area, which includes the research
done by the C.G.I.L. trade union, confirms the very high incidence of sexual
harassment in the workplace in Italy, and in the European countries in
general, and is a useful indication of the need to find appropriate solutions
both at the contractual level and in the legislative and judicial areas.
Nearly all the collective labour agreements reached in Italy in recent
years make reference to the EC resolution of 29 May 1990 on the protection of
the dignity of women at work, and some of these agreements refer specifically
to sexual harassment in the workplace (see attached documents).
Moreover, both case law and legal theory identify article 2087 of the
Civil Code, which requires employers to take all necessary measures to
guarantee the physical integrity and legal personality of their employees, as
the existing norm to which reference must be made.
Article 2087 imposes on employers an obligation, covering all conduct,
whether by act or by omission, to protect all aspects of the worker's
personality.
It goes without saying that the employer's civil liability may be
incurred at the same time as his criminal liability or the criminal liability
of other parties.
Act No. 215/92: Affirmative action for women entrepreneurs
Synoptic chart
It was not possible at this time to reproduce the chart or table which appears
here in the text, but you may obtain it by contacting the Division for the
Advancement of Women directly.
11.4 Protections against dismissal
The years 1990 and 1991 were particularly fruitful in terms of the
strengthening of protections against both individual and collective dismissal.
In particular, Act No. 108 of 11 May 1990 on individual dismissals
extended the guarantees provided for in Act No. 300/1970 to employees of
industrial firms with more than 15 employees and agricultural firms with more
than 5 employees.
The Act thus extended protection against unlawful dismissal to nearly
all workers by providing workers in small firms with guarantees in this area.
This measure was very important for women workers, for nationalization
and downsizing have altered a considerable number of women workers, who have
traditionally formed the bulk of small businesses' employees.
In addition Act No. 223 of 23 July 1991 provided specific guarantees,
including provision for special procedures, against collective dismissal.
These guarantees also apply to employee mobility requirements.
In particular, the legislative stipulation of criteria for determining
which workers are to be subject to a mobility requirement is a specific
guarantee that benefits female workers.
Still on the question of dismissals, attention should be drawn to ruling
No. 61 handed down by the Constitutional Court on 8 February 1991, in which
the Court declared unconstitutional the part of article 2 of Act No. 1204 of
30 December 1971 (protection of working mothers) which provides that the
dismissal of a female worker during the prenatal and puerperal period referred
to in that article is temporarily inapplicable, rather than invalid.
11.5 Evolution of contracts
During the latest round of contract negotiations, special attention was
paid to problems relating to the effective achievement of equality between men
and women.
The most recent collective agreements not only confirmed the general
principles of equality in access to employment, conditions of employment and
vocational training, as provided for in Act No. 903 of 1977 and consistently
reaffirmed in contracts (see, for example, the collective agreement for
enterprises in the paper and cardboard industry), and looked into ways of
protecting maternity and combating sexual harassment in the workplace, but
also, and this is the most significant innovation of the most recent round of
contract negotiations, paid particular attention to possible indirect
discrimination in the areas of professional qualifications and appointments to
senior positions.
For example, the collective agreement for the textile and clothing
industries provides, among other things, for a survey of employment,
remuneration and labour costs, which must show the distribution of female
labour by qualifications and rank.
In addition (see, for example, the collective agreement for
steelworkers), joint equal opportunity commissions are to be created, not only
at the national but also at the local level, to conduct study, research and
promotional activities and to identify obstacles to genuine equality, while
looking for ways to overcome them.
11.6 Evolution of the labour market
Statistics confirm women's explicit presence in the labour market in
terms of both supply and demand.
We attach statistics for the period up to 1990, disaggregated by sector
of economic activity, labour market status, attitude to work, educational
qualification, age and region of origin. We also attach data on training and
employment contracts for 1990 and data, updated to September 1991, on
part-time contracts and contracts converted from full-time to part-time
contracts.
Article 12
PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH
Article 12
1. States parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure,
on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health-care services,
including those related to family planning.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph l of this article, States
Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with
pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where
necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.
In the field of health protection, information and prevention campaigns
are organized with the help of screenings. This is done mainly through family
health centres, which are more widespread in northern and central Italy than
in southern Italy.
The RU 486 pill is being administered experimentally by a number of
clinics, on behalf of the Ministry of Health (which will subsequently decide
whether or not to continue its use. The Act on termination of pregnancy
(194/78) allows health-care personnel to raise objections to this procedure.
With regard to abortion, statistics reveal a steady decline in births by
region, age and level of education. Italy's falling birth rate is bringing it
to the point of zero population growth, with the result that it ranks lowest
in European birth rate statistics.
In 1991, the Ministry of Health organized a "Women's health" campaign
focusing on three objectives: cancer prevention in women, problems associated
with menopause, and contraception. The campaign used publicity spots on RAI
television and in the press.
On 14 April, the Minister of Health set up the Commission for the
Protection of Women's Health, as part of the Ministry's research centre, with
the task of considering ways of bringing health care to women in three
distinct age groups: adolescents, adults and the elderly. The Commission will
begin work with the last of these age groups by contributing to the project
for the elderly, which has already been approved by the Italian Parliament and
is receiving funding from it.
The National Health Plan for 1992-1994 includes the following target
projects and planned activities: health protection for the elderly; maternal
and child care; and cancer prevention and treatment.
Article 13
ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN OTHER
AREAS OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LIFE
Article 13
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in other areas of economic and social life in
order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in
particular:
(a) The right to family benefits, credit;
(b) The right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial
(c) The right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all
aspects of cultural life.
13.1 The right to alimony
The recent reform of Italy's divorce law (approved by Act No. 74 of ó
March 1987) was prompted mainly by the need to shorten the period of legal
separation of the spouses that is a necessary precondition for petitioning for
and obtaining the legal dissolution of a marriage. The new law also introduced
various other provisions, most of which are aimed at expediting the
corresponding judgements (especially those in courts of second instance),
improving the handling of family and property matters, and reducing the volume
of litigation associated with these problems.
When a court rules on the dissolution of a marriage and the cessation of
its civil effects, it also, on the basis of various factors, such as the
situation of the spouses, the reasons for the judgement, the personal and
economic contribution of each spouse to the upkeep of the family and to the
property owned by each of them separately or by both of them jointly, the
incomes of both spouses and also the duration of the marriage, imposes on one
of the spouses the obligation to pay alimony to the other at the regular
intervals if the other spouse does not have or for objective reasons cannot
obtain, sufficient resources.
The judgement must also establish a mechanism for automatically
adjusting the amount of alimony in order to at least offset the effects of
inflation.
In interpreting this provision, most judges have tended (a tendency
confirmed by a recent ruling of the Supreme Court of Cessation, the body
institutionally responsible for ensuring that the law is interpreted
uniformly) to stipulate that the question of whether the plaintiff (who may
well be already self-supporting) has sufficient resources must be looked at in
terms of the goal of ensuring him or her not just a financially independent
and decent life, but a standard of living comparable to that enjoyed during
the marriage.
The reform of family law introduced the concept of the family firm, a
development obviously important for protecting women's work within the family.
Thus, article 230 bis of the Civil Code now provides that, unless a
different labour relationship can be established, family members (spouses or
parents) who perform services continuously within the family are entitled to a
share of the profits of the family firm proportional to the quality and
quantity of the work they have done. For this purpose, women's work is
expressly equated with men's. All members of the family firm have a say in
decisions on the management and liquidation of the firm.
Act No. 74/87 also provides that a divorced spouse (provided that he or
she has not married and has been awarded alimony) is entitled, on the death of
the other spouse, to a survivor's benefit based on his/her relationship with
the deceased prior to the divorce. If the deceased leaves a surviving spouse,
such entitlement shall be to a share of the survivor's benefit.
In addition to these legislative principles, we consider it useful to
provide some information on how they are being applied in practice. A sample
survey of the procedures for unilateral separation, judicial separation and
separation by mutual consent adopted by the courts of Padua, Rovigo, L'Aquila
and Santa Maria Capua Vetere in 1990 is illustrative in this regard (see
below, article 16).
13.2 Access to credit
Access to credit is traditionally an area in which the creditor
exercises a large measure of discretion.
There are no formal constraints or limitations of any kind on access to
credit by women who are economically active.
However, women working in industry and finance have observed that the
guarantees which businesswomen have to provide are far more stringent than
those demanded of men for activities involving the same level of risk. In the
case of women, the tendency is still to evaluate an application for credit not
on the basis of parameters which measure personal reliability (value of the
project, personal dynamism, etc.), but on the basis of quantifiable data
(assets, previous ventures, etc.).
The Italian Government's response to this situation has been to enact
specific legislation, based on a bill introduced in Parliament by Tina
Anselmi, under which firms established by women or largely run by women
partners have better and immediate access to credit.
By Act No. 215 of 25 February 1992 on affirmative action for women
entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Industry allocated 30 billion lire over the
three-year period 1992 to 1994 to a fund for women entrepreneurs.
Access to this fund is restricted to: partnerships and cooperatives at
least 60 per cent of whose members are women; corporations two thirds of whose
shares and directorships are held by women; private companies owned by women;
and business training and consultancy services at least 70 per cent of whose
beneficiaries are women.
Business activities falling within these categories may request
financing from the fund according to various formulas:
- A non-repayable grant to cover 50 per cent of the initial investment;
- A non-repayable grant to cover 30 per cent of the cost of expansion;
- A loan of up to 300 million lire at half the current interest rate,
repayable over a five-year period.
In the hardship zones of southern Italy or in special EC designated
zones, the initial grant or loan is subsequently increased by 10 per cent.
13.3 Sports activities
Italian women have attained full equality with men in sports. In this
connection, a ruling of the Constitutional Court repealed the law barring
women from being umpires.
At the present time, there are no formal, gender-based restrictions
either on sports participation in general or on the availability of sports
facilities.
In recent years, the new lifestyle which has given Italian women greater
control over their free time has prompted many young women to turn to physical
activity, often of a competitive kind, as an enjoyable, healthy form of
recreation. The main evidence for this is to be found in statistics which
point to a marked increase in the number of Italian women who engage regularly
in a sport.
In 1959, fewer than 1 per cent of Italian women said that they engaged
in a sport, whereas by 1985 the figure was 14.4 per cent, an increase that
applied throughout the country. Women now account for an average of 30 per
cent of the total membership of the country's main sports federations, with
just under that figure (28 per cent) in northern Italy, just over it (32 per
cent) in central Italy and exactly 30 per cent in southern Italy; this last
figure is also attributable to the boom in sports facilities in the south in
recent years.
The proportion of women who say that they engage regularly in a sport is
still half that of men, however, for whom the corresponding figure was 31 per
cent in 1985.
In the absence of specific legal constraints, this difference must be
attributed to other factors, such as the international regulations governing
some sports and the absence of affirmative action.
The first of these factors concerns the Olympic and international
regulations governing some sports. The International Olympic Committee, for
instance, does not recognize women~s football, with the result that, while
football is undeniably the sport of Italian boys, girls cannot play it in
school because it is not one of the "youth games" which are viewed as
preparing young people for the Olympic Games. The importance of beginning to
play sports in school is also demonstrated by statistics indicating that
sports participation levels peak in the 10 to 14 age group: approximately 65
per cent of Italian boys and 47 per cent of Italian girls in this age group
engage regularly in a sport. Thereafter, however, the percentages drop sharply
for girls: in the next age group up, only 27 per cent of girls participate in
sports, and by the time they reach the age of 25, the figure has dropped to 14
per cent.
Since the development of sports in schools appears to depend a large
extent on the prospects which they offer in terms of international
competition, it may be useful to verify whether gender equality is being
applied in international sports organizations. What we find is that, so far,
only one woman has gained access to International Olympic Committee circles,
namely, the daughter of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.
The second factor that seems to affect sports participation by women is
the absence of affirmative action to develop women's sports. This situation is
a direct result of the fact that virtually all senior sports officials in
Italy are men. Until 1990, not one sports federation in Italy had ever had a
woman president, not even federations such as the Italian Athletics
Federation, whose membership is roughly 70 per cent female. In 1990,
Federcalcio, Italy's largest and most prestigious sports federation, waived
this restrictive, albeit unwritten, rule when its federal President appointed
a woman to head the women's football division.
The affirmative action taken during this period has been fairly low-key
and has involved, for instance, the enforcement of equality legislation in the
granting of permission to use football fields and in the allocation of
financial support to teams.
The two sports most widely practised by Italian women of all ages are
gymnastics and swimming; 1,680,000 women do gymnastics and 750,000 women swim
on a regular basis.
However, if we consider the number of women who actually belong to a
sports federation and thus presumably engage in a competitive sport on a
permanent basis, the leading sport is volleyball, which Italian girls
generally begin to play in school gymnasiums.
The gymnastics federation is predominantly female - 78 per cent of its
members are women. Other sports federations either do not differentiate
between male and female members in their record-keeping or do not admit women.
With over 1,100,000 members, the Italian Football Federation is the
country's largest sports federation, but very few women belong to it, even
though as many women now play football as engage in a traditional women's
sport such as swimming.
In short, in Italy today sport is open to women if they are prepared to
fight to gain access to it. Current data indicate that, as Italian women have
gradually won control over their free time, they have devoted increasing
energies to sports. The next step, which is now being taken, is to win a place
for women at the seminar management level, in order to secure for women's
sports the advantages which, unless they are demanded forcefully, are
automatically awarded only to men's sports.
Article 14
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
Article 14
1. States Parties shall take into account the particular problems faced
by rural women and the significant roles which rural women play in the
economic survival of their families, including their work in the non-monetized
sectors of the economy, and shall take all appropriate measures to ensure the
application of the provisions of the present Convention to women in rural
areas.
2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of
equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural
development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right:
(a) To participate in the elaboration and implementation of development
planning at all levels;
(b) To have access to adequate health care facilities, including
information counselling and services in family planning,
(c) To benefit directly from social security programmes;
(d) To obtain all types of training and education, formal and
non-formal, including that relating to functional literacy, as well as, inter
alia, the benefit of all community and extension services, in order to
increase their technical proficiency;
(e) To organize self-help groups and cooperatives in order to obtain
equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self-employment;
(f) To participate in all community activities;
(g) To have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing
facilities, appropriate technology and equal treatment in land and agrarian
reform as well as in land resettlement schemes
(h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to
housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and
communications.
Provisional data from the 1990 census confirm concerns about the recent
trend towards a reduction of the agricultural production base and the
agricultural labour force and the process of concentration currently under way
in the structure of agricultural enterprises.
In the space of only eight years, 233,000 farms have disappeared,
800,000 hectares of usable agricultural land (SAU), representing 5 per cent of
the total, have been converted to other uses and the number of work days used
has declined by a quarter.
The average size of agricultural enterprises has remained almost
unchanged (+2.2 per cent) precisely because the decline in the number of farms
has come about largely as a result of the abandonment of farms and only to a
very limited extent as a result of mergers.
Labour intensity per unit of area has declined by 20 per cent, from 38
to 30 work days/SAU; this is a positive phenomenon in some respects, as an
indicator of the process of rationalization and specialization, but in other
respects, as a sign of manpower shortages in certain major sectors, it is
decidedly negative.
The sharp decline in the use of labour is linked to the development of
non-labour-intensive agriculture which occurred during the 1980s, encouraged
by a Community pricing policy which favoured non-labour-intensive crops and
led to a significant shift away from livestock production and tree cultivation
to herbaceous crops.
The 1990 census identified 3,036,000 farms, representing a 7 per cent
decline since the 1982 census. Between 1961 and the present, 1,258,000
agricultural enterprises have disappeared, equivalent to a reduction of
What the 1982 census had revealed is confirmed by the provisional data
for 1990: on the one hand, a multitude of very small farms (37 per cent of
them consisting of less than one hectare) and, on the other, agricultural
enterprises of over 20 hectares, representing 5 per cent of the total but
accounting for over 50 per cent of the land and 60 per cent of production.
The decline in the number of farms has reached very significant levels
in northern Italy (-13 per cent), by comparison with central Italy (-4.1 per
cent) and southern Italy (-4.6 per cent), confirming the trend, already
observed in the 1970s, of a greater turnover of land in the regions where the
industrialization process has been most intense.
In the space of some 30 years, in addition to a 39 per cent reduction in
farms in mountain areas, there has been a 26 per cent decline in other areas;
in short, agricultural activity has gradually shifted from the north to the
south and from rugged terrain to more usable land.
Between 1982 and 1990, the total agricultural area of the farms surveyed
declined by 4 per cent, bringing the overall decline, from 1960 to the
present, to very nearly 4 million hectares (-15 per cent).
At the same time, the global loss of SAU during the past 30 years
amounted to 3.7 million hectares, of which 1 million hectares were in the
plains, 1 million in the mountains and the rest (1.7 million hectares) in the
hills.
The reason for this is not only the return of a lot of marginal land to
its natural wooded state, but also the "appropriation" by towns, industry and
infrastructure of very fertile land that was eminently suited to agriculture.
In 1990, the average overall size of Italian farms was found to be close
to 7.5 hectares, as compared with 7.2 in 1982, 7 in 1970 and ó.2 in 1961.
There has thus been a clear falling off in the rate of expansion of the
size of farms.
The farms with the largest areas of land are to be found, as might be
expected, in mountainous areas: 11.7 hectares, as compared with ó.3 in hilly
areas and 6.2 in the plains. This difference is attributable to the higher
rate of abandonment in mountain areas, which has facilitated the enlargement
and consolidation of the farms that remain.
The average SAU of Italian farms has grown at a much slower rate than
their overall size.
Between 1970 and the present, average SAU remained almost constant at
about 4.9 hectares. This means that an increasingly large area of the farm has
been converted to woodland, left uncultivated or used for service areas
(housing, buildings).
Average SAU per farm is 5.5 hectares in mountainous areas, 5.4 hectares
in the plains and 4.5 hectares in hilly areas. The arable area of a farm also
varies in direct proportion to the fertility of the land and the ease with
which it can be worked: from 47 per cent in the mountains, where woods cover
the most inaccessible areas, to 71 per cent in the hills and 87 per cent in
the plains.
14.1 Manpower
A. The changing situation
According to census data, manpower use in agriculture has declined by
over 60 per cent in the space of 30 years. The number of work days fell from
nearly 1.3 billion in 1961 to 460 million in 1990.
Work days per farm have declined by one half, from 300 in 1961 to 150 in
1990, while work days per hectare of SAU have declined even more sharply from
69 to 31.
If we limit our analysis to the two most recent censuses, a slower
decline is observable in hilly and mountainous areas (23.5 per cent), as
compared with the plains (26.5 per cent); this can be explained by the marked
difference in trends between the central and northern regions and the south,
as a result mainly of their different demographic and economic evolution.
In northern and central Italy, in areas where there are abundant plains,
the strong attraction of industrial and tertiary activities has led to a
considerably greater agricultural exodus than in southern Italy where, by
contrast, the population is still growing at an appreciable rate and
employment opportunities outside farming are very limited.
It is not surprising, therefore, that in the north the reduction in work
days during the 1980s approached 27 per cent, while in the south it was only
18 per cent, although with considerable differences among areas of the south:
it was marginal in Calabria and Sardinia, where some large-scale industrial
initiatives failed, but roughly matched northern levels in the Abruzzi (-28
per cent) and in Campania (-24 per cent). The strongest decline in the use of
manpower in agriculture took place in central Italy (-33 per cent) because of
the drastic elimination of livestock production and the strong attraction of
tertiary activities, particularly tourism.
Most manpower comes from farming families, but the rate varies from 90
per cent in the north to 85 per cent in the centre and 77 per cent in the
south; nationwide, family work days totalled 383 million (83 per cent), as
compared with 76 million non-family work days.
B. Labour intensity
In 1990, the number of workdays per hectare of SAU averaged 31, but
differed markedly according to region and geographical area.
In mountainous areas, the figure was 25 days per hectare, as compared
with 31 days per hectare in hilly areas and 34.5 days per hectare in the
plains. However, the movement towards non-intensive farming was much more
marked in the plains, where labour intensity per hectare declined by 24 per
cent, as compared with 19 per cent in the hills and mountains.
Manpower use is more intensive in the north (35 days per hectare) than
in the centre and south (28 days), both because of the significant amount of
livestock production in the Po valley and because of the presence of areas of
intensive cultivation; in the south, on the other hand, areas under fruit and
vegetable cultivation alternate with vast areas of non-intensive farming.
A regional analysis only partially explains these differences; Liguria
far exceeds Campania, with 120 days per hectare of SAU as compared with 70.
However, the province of Naples comes first nationwide, with 192 days,
followed by Imperia (158), Savona (135) and Pistoia (110).
14.2 Legal position of women in agricultural enterprises and access to credit
Act No. 215 on affirmative action for women entrepreneurs, which was
approved by the Italian Parliament at the end of the tenth legislature and
published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 7 March 1992, was favourably received
by self-employed workers because it represents the culmination of the equal
opportunity legislation that began with Act No. 125/91, which refers
particularly to women wage earners, and because it can make female
entrepreneurship a reality.
The promotion of genuine equality and equal opportunity for men and
women is no simple matter, still less so in the self-employed sector, where
there is no formal employer-employee relationship but there is a need to
promote the formation of a new, non-stereotypical business class.
The Act in question creates opportunities designed to bring this about:
(a) By encouraging the establishment and development of female
businesses, including cooperatives;
(b) By promoting business training and enhancing the professional skills
of women entrepreneurs;
(c) By facilitating access to credit for enterprises whose management or
shareholders are predominantly female;
(d) By promoting business and management training for family enterprises
run by women;
(e) By promoting the presence of enterprises whose management or
shareholders are predominantly female in the most innovative branches of
various production sectors (article 1).
It was for this purpose that the national fund for the development of
female entrepreneurship was established, with 30 billion lire in funding for
the three-year period 1992 to 1994. In the agricultural sector, the fund will
be used to provide grants for:
ta) New enterprises involving the introduction of skills and product
innovation in the technological and organizational spheres;
(b) The acquisition of services with a view to increasing productivity,
carrying out organizational innovation, transferring technology, finding new
markets for products, acquiring new production, management and marketing
techniques and developing quality-control systems (article 4);
(c) Training centres and professional associations which organize
business training courses or provide consultancy and technical and managerial
assistance services, at least 70 per cent of which are reserved for women
(article 2).
Act No. 215 also envisages the establishment, within the Ministry of
Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts, of a committee on female entrepreneurship
responsible for guidance and programming tasks related to matters covered by
the Act.
It has been noted that this Act marks a transition in our legislation
from the limited concept of protection set forth in article 230 bis of the
Civil Code, which regulates relationships within the farming family, to the
broader concept of human resources development.
Article 15
EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN BEFORE THE LAW
Article 15
1. States Parties shall accord to women equality with men before the
law.
2. States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal
capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that
capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal rights to conclude
contracts and to administer property and shall treat them equally in all
stages of procedure in courts and tribunals.
3. States Parties agree that all contracts and all other private
instruments of any kind with a legal effect which is directed at restricting
the legal capacity of women shall be deemed null and void.
4. States Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with
regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to
choose their residence and domicile.
Taking into account the information given in the previous report, it
would seem useful to add the following.
Act No. 217 of 30 July 1990, on the provision of legal aid at State
expense for persons of limited financial means, was an attempt to respond,
even if only in the area of criminal law, to the long-felt need for a change
in the regulations governing free legal aid, currently regulated by Royal
Decree No. 3282 of 30 December 1923. The basis for an urgent, radical reform
was to be found in article 24 (3) of the Constitution, which stipulates that
persons of limited financial means must be given, through special
institutions, the means to bring legal action or defend themselves at all
levels of jurisdiction, a principle which is closely linked to the principle
of equality laid down in the second paragraph of article 3 of the Constitution
and which, as has been rightly noted, entails a transition from a financial to
a social conception of free legal aid and requires a system based on the
criteria of social welfare.
It was also felt that a reform limited to the area of criminal law would
be approved more rapidly, since none of the most contentious issues, on which
there is no unanimity, arise in this area. These include issues such as the
admissibility of the so-called fumus boni iuris as a precondition for
eligibility for legal aid and the desirability of giving ad hoc commissions
the power to decide on eligibility in the various spheres of criminal law.
The concept of "poverty" used in the existing legislation was replaced
by the concept of "limited financial means" used in the Constitution and was
linked to an objective criterion, that of net annual income.
It was thus envisaged that the State would assume responsibility for the
costs, charges and fees of the counsel for the defence, and for the amounts
due from the accused to the expert.
It was established that legal aid for persons of limited financial means
should be provided by using the services of lawyers exercising their
profession freely and by giving the accused considerable freedom of choice as
to the lawyer by whom he or she wishes to be assisted, so as not to lose the
element of trust on which any relationship involving the provision of
professional services is based.
It should be noted that this Act affects all citizens. Since women are
more often than not the weaker party from the economic standpoint, they
clearly stand to benefit the most from it.
Article 16
EQUALITY IN ALL MATTERS RELATING TO MARRIAGE AND FAMILY RELATIONS
Article 16
1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family
relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and
women:
(a) The same right to enter into marriage,
(b) The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage
(c) The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its
dissolution;
(d) The same rights and responsibilities as parents, irrespective of
their marital status, in matters relating to their children, in all cases the
interests of the children shall be paramount,
(e) The same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and
spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and
means to enable them to exercise these rights,
(f) The same rights and responsibilities with regard to guardianship,
wardship, trusteeship and adoption of children, or similar institutions where
these concepts exist in national legislation, in all cases the interests of
the children shall be paramount,
(g) The same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to
choose a family name, a profession and an occupation,
(h) The same rights for both spouse of the ownership, acquisition,
management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property, whether
free of charge or for a valuable consideration.
2. The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and
all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a
minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an
official registry compulsory.
In addition to the information given under article 13 of the Convention,
the following would seem to be in order.
The recent reform of Italy's divorce law (approved by Act No. 74 of 6
March 1987) arose largely from the need to shorten the period of legal
separation of the spouses as a necessary precondition for petitioning for and
obtaining the legal dissolution of a marriage. The new law also introduced
various other provisions, most of which are aimed at expediting the
corresponding judgements (especially those in courts of second instance),
improving the handling of family and property matters, and reducing the
litigation associated with these problems.
Specifically, when a court rules on the dissolution of a marriage and
the cessation of its civil effects, it also, on the basis of various factors,
such as the situation of the spouses, the reasons for the judgement, the
personal and economic contribution of each spouse to the upkeep of the family
and to the property owned by each of them separately or both of them jointly,
the incomes of both spouses and also the duration of the marriage, imposes on
one of the spouses the obligation to pay alimony to the other at regular
intervals if the other spouse does not have, or for objective reasons cannot
obtain, sufficient resources.
The judgement must also establish a mechanism for automatically
adjusting the amount of alimony in order to at least offset the effects of
inflation.
In interpreting this provision, most judges have tended (a tendency
confirmed by a recent ruling of the Supreme Court of Cassation, the body
institutionally responsible for ensuring that the law is interpreted
uniformly) to stipulate that the question of whether the plaintiff (who may
well be already self-supporting) has sufficient resources must be looked at in
terms of the goal of ensuring him or her not just a financially independent
and decent life but a standard of living comparable to that enjoyed during the
marriage.
The reform of family law introduced the concept of the family firm, a
development which is obviously important for protecting women's work within
the family.
Thus, article 230 bis of the Civil Code now provides that unless a
different (labour) relationship can be established, family members (spouses or
parents) who perform services continuously within the family are entitled to a
share of the profits of the family firm proportional to the quality and
quantity of the work they have done. For this purpose, women's work is
expressly equated with men's. All members of the family firm have a say in
decisions on the management and liquidation of the firm.
Act No. 74/87 also provides that a divorced spouse (provided that he or
she has not remarried and has been awarded alimony) is entitled, on the death
of the other spouse, to a survivor's benefit based on his/her relationship
with the deceased prior to the divorce. If the deceased leaves a surviving
spouse, such entitlement shall be to a share of the survivor's benefit.
In addition to these legislative principles, we consider it useful to
provide some information on how they are being implemented in practice. A
sample survey of the procedures for unilateral separation, judicial separation
and separation by mutual consent adopted by the courts of Padua, Rovigo,
L'Aguila and Santa Maria Capua Vetere in 1990 is illustrative in this regard.
The common and most significant feature of these procedures is that, in
the majority of cases (over 70 per cent), it is the wife who petitions for a
separation. Her petition is always based on serious and specific accusations
against her husband.
Such complaints concern physical and psychological abuse, the husband's
tyrannical behaviour and his complete lack of interest in the family's
problems.
On the other hand, husbands' petitions are based mainly on accusations
of infidelity against their wives which, upon investigation, often turn out to
be groundless. These statistics reflect women's greater maturity and sense of
responsibility towards the family and their different approach to resolving
marital difficulties.
It should also be stressed that separation affects couples of all ages,
confirming, as far as younger couples are concerned, that women are becoming
aware of their rights and, as far as older couples are concerned, that the
situation has deteriorated beyond repair because wives have endured repeated
humiliations for far too long.
The fact that the initiative is usually taken by the wife is not, as it
might seem, a sign that Italian women enjoy greater freedom and independence
but rather that a very serious material and spiritual malaise exists which can
no longer be tolerated.
In the absence of support for the family and social assistance,
separation appears to be the only viable solution, despite the economic and
psychological difficulties that separated women generally face.
The survey shows clearly that judicial procedures offer neither
protection nor adequate responses to women's demand for justice.
In 99 per cent of cases, the custody of minors is awarded to the mother
on the basis of deep-rooted cultural traditions, without taking into account
the importance for the children of having the father around or the actual
ability of the mother to cope on her own, with fewer financial resources, with
a new and difficult situation.
Alimony, on the other hand, which by law must guarantee the same
standard of living as that enjoyed prior to separation, is usually set, in
cases of judicial separation, at a woefully inadequate level and according to
criteria that are not applied consistently. This happens either because of the
objective difficulty of determining the real financial situation of the spouse
who is better off, or because the judge, in exercising discretionary power to
set the actual amount of alimony, is guided by largely subjective criteria,
with the result that similar cases are treated differently.
The data collected also show a marked prevalence of mutually agreed
separations over judicial separations or, more precisely, of judicial
separations later converted to mutually agreed separations.
An agreed separation in cases where the petition was based on serious
accusations of abuse against the husband does not mean that an understanding
has been reached between equal partners and in a spirit of reconciliation. On
the contrary, it is the culmination of long and arduous negotiations in which
the woman finds herself at a financial and psychological disadvantage.
Financial, because she is often not employed outside the home or else
has a job that is poorly paid.
Psychological, because she has to face all the difficulties of the
proceedings on her own and feels completely lost in the court system, with the
result that she gradually loses faith in the outcome and accepts solutions
that are financially unsatisfactory, if not iniquitous.
Moreover, in such cases, the allegations on which the petition was based
are not weighed by the judge and do not have any impact on the determination
of the amount of alimony.
The system is seriously flawed at this stage, in that it does not offer
opportunities for mediation permitting balanced solutions that respond to the
actual needs of women, who come to separation with no knowledge of their
rights and without receiving from public agencies the information and legal
and psychological assistance that they need.
It should be recalled that the public family advisory centres do not
usually provide legal advice or assistance. Such services are provided on a
voluntary basis by women's associations.
Because women are so seriously misinformed about their rights, they
usually start by making incorrect use of the various procedural instruments
and tend to file in criminal court even when they lack sufficient grounds. The
result is complaints and disputes that heighten the conflict between the
spouses without affording the woman any effective protection.
16.1 Aspects of criminal court protection for women
Court practice with regard to the criminal offence of domestic violence
is also documented by data from an ongoing survey of the courts of Rovigo,
Padua, L'Aquila and Santa Maria Capua Vetere.
Under Italian law, domestic violence can be perpetrated against not only
minors, but also the spouse, particularly the weaker spouse, and constitutes a
specific offence punishable by a separate sentence, in addition to other
traditional acts of violence covered by the Penal Code.
Domestic violence covers and may be assimilated to acts that may qualify
as injurious behaviour, battery and threats. As a result, the corresponding
norm (article 572 of the Penal Code) treats a very wide range of acts as
criminal.
Numerous court rulings have been passed down in cases of domestic
violence. For example, courts have treated as domestic violence or abuse the
provision of poor or inadequate food; failure to provide adequate medical
care; and causing one's wife excessive physical exhaustion. The husband's
taking his wife's money without her knowledge has also been treated as abuse,
since such conduct is incompatible with the bonds of love, respect and mutual
assistance which should exist between spouses.
Similarly, it has been considered abusive for a husband to permit
members of his own family to show scorn or hostility for his wife, especially
if such conduct contrasts with an attitude of deference and respect on the
wife's part towards her husband's family.
Refusal to pay alimony to the wife may constitute abuse only if the
husband's intention is to humiliate his wife by depriving her of what she
needs in order to live.
The courts have also ruled that making repeated accusations of sexual
perversion against the other spouse, including in public, constitutes abuse.
The two main constraints on the application of the law in judicial
practice should be highlighted.
The first is the relative nature of the concept of seriousness, since
abusive behaviour is not assessed objectively but in relation to the social
status and educational level of the spouses.
The second constraint is the requirement that the abuse must be habitual
and occur more than once: one act of abuse is not considered sufficient.
This means that, theoretically, one act of abuse resulting in physical
or mental suffering, no matter how serious, may not be treated as criminal
since it is an isolated occurrence and cannot be classified as habitual.
The fundamental issue remains how to apply the law effectively: the
effectiveness of the legislation on domestic violence is in fact compromised
by the persistence of a situation in which violence against women is not
talked about and is veiled in secrecy. This situation cuts across all social
classes but it is most prevalent where prevailing social conditions hinder the
emancipation of women.
No matter how progressive, laws cannot get to the heart of a situation
of humiliation and suffering which is rooted in centuries of subjugation of
the wife to the husband. In fact, men all too often still see respect for a
woman's dignity not as a duty but as an optional concession.
Once again, the law may not prove fully effective if the principles
which it enunciates are not genuinely espoused by all sectors of society and
do not reflect a culture and an outlook that are widely accepted by society at
large.
The following volumes* have been published in the series edited by
Giacomo F. Rech for the National Commission for the Achievement of Equality
between Men and women, attached to the Office of the Prime Minister:
Codice Donna - Norme e atti internazionali, 1985, 1990;
- 120 anni di cammino verso la parità, 1985, also available in English
(out of print);
- Immagine Donna, 1985;
- Strategie future di azione per il progresso delle donne e misure
concrete per superare gli ostacoli alla realizzazione, entro l'anno 2000 degli
scopi e degli obiettivi del DeceImio delle Nazioni Unite per la Donna:
uguaglianza, sviluppo e pace, Conferenza Mondiale di Nairobi, 1985;
- Raccomandazioni per un uso non sessista della lingua italiana, 1986 (out
of print);
- Un programma di azione positiva, 1986;
- Immagini maschili e femminili nei testi per le elementari, 1986;
- Autrici italiane - Catalogo ragionato dei libri di narrativa, poesia,
saggistica: 1945-1985, 1986;
- La stampa periodica delle donne in Italia - Catalogo 1861-1985, 1986;
- Donna e tecnologie, 1986;
- Il sessismo nella lingua italiana, 1987 (being reprinted);
- Indagine sulle donne elette nelle regioni, province, comuni, 1987;
- La criminalità femminile in Italia, 1987;
- Piano di azione nazionale, 1987;
- Donne e diritto - Due secoli di legislazione: 1796-1986, 1987;
- Decimo anniversario della Convenzione delle Nazioni Unite
sull'eliminazione di tutte le forme di discriminazione nei confronti delle
donne, 1989 (out of print);
- Primo rapporto del Governo itariano sulla Convenzione per l'eliminazione
di tutte le forme di discriminazione nei confronti delle donne, 1989;
* Also available in the bookstores of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca
dello stato.
- Pagine Rosa - Guida ai diritti delle donne, 1991;
- La donna dei media - Sportello immagine donna, 1992;
- Le donne nel mondo: 1970-1990.Statistiche e idee, 1993.