In Italy female managers are more than one million with a double increase in relation to their male colleagues, this is the result of the last Report about female entrepreneurship of Unioncamere.
Even if these data seem comforting, numbers say that the pink quotas on an apical level, are less than a quarter of the total of the Italian Managers. Still a long way…
Chiara Arosio, Principal of Carter & Benson “In the social and political life and within companies, more and more women are covering key roles and probably we will assist to important increases in the next future, but that’s not the point, because there is an open issue. It’s about the tinge with which the female role is interpreted in the world. A tinge for which, I personally ask some questions: ““’Till when will make the news the success of a person only because she is a woman? ‘Till when will make the news the colour of you skin? “Till when will we go on reading on media something like -Mrs. Harris has been, then, the first woman to cover that role, or the first Asio-American- or -For the first time, in 700 years the Università Sapienza of Rome has a female rector: Antonella Polimeni- ?
Gender equality is a starting point and I definitely appreciate the associations that are “spokesman” of these messages and that support the diffusion of the gender equality culture, but I personally wish that the attention will then focus on merit, competences and qualities of each individual in work and life”.
Simona Cremascoli, Partner of Carter & Benson and Board Member of IMD adds “CHOOSING THE PERSONS FOR WHAT THEY ARE AND DESERVE, that’s our mantra. In fact, in Carter & Benson, the issue of pink quotas doesn’t exist, equity is independent from gender and is given by merit and skills.
Women are not a protected species and when we think about any assignement, it is vital not to choose following gender, age or race. When we select a person, what counts for are his/her competences, preparation and skills in relation to the role that he/she has to cover. Equal opportunities must not be a question of percentages to be respected, neither pink quotas must represent preferential lanes, this would be negative because it could mean introducing in the company persons who are not able to fulfill the task. Establishing equity means go beyond and be able to change paradigms”.
Cover photo: credits freepik