Advocacy & Lobbying
Women in Italy: What the Data Really Says in 2025
Italy has its first female prime minister. Italian women are more educated than Italian men. And yet in 2025, Italy ranked 117th in the world for female economic participation, trailing countries that most Italians would be surprised to find ahead of them. This is the central paradox of women in Italy today: a country of visible female achievement and stubborn structural exclusion, often existing side by side, sometimes in the same woman's life.
Women in Italy: Key Facts and Statistics
Before the detail, the numbers that frame the conversation.
Only 51% of women of working age in Italy are employed, compared to 69% of men. The female unemployment rate is nearly double that of men, at 8.4% versus 4.9%. Women earn on average 10.7% less than men, with a gap reaching 27.3% in managerial roles.
In France, Germany and Britain, the female employment rate exceeds 66.6% and the employment gender gap is below 6.7 percentage points. Italy's gap stands at 17.8 percentage points.
The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025 places Italy 85th out of 148 countries overall, but 117th specifically for employment and leadership, where only 28.8% of top positions are held by women.
Across the globe, deliberate illiberal strategies that exploit entrenched gender inequality are increasingly being used to weaken democratic institutions from within. The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was not simply a byproduct of chaos at the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. Rather, it followed a well-documented authoritarian strategy in which attacks on gender equality are used to consolidate power, narrow civic space, and make democratic governance harder to defend. While the process of dismantling the agency that administered U.S. government foreign assistance has been well documented, significant gaps remain between what insiders witnessed and what the broader public understands. This gap in understanding is not benign. When the public perceives these events as isolated policy shifts rather than coordinated institutional erosion, it diffuses accountability, obscures the impact, reduces resistance, and allows similar tactics to be redeployed without scrutiny.
The administration’s early actions targeting gender equality, women’s empowerment, LGBTQI+ initiatives, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility functions operated not as peripheral policy disputes but as frontline tactics that weakened foreign assistance infrastructure, government institutions, and democratic norms. Trump has used this approach since at least 2016. It was mapped out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Drawing on firsthand experience and technical analysis, this report situates these actions within an effective authoritarian pattern of leveraging patriarchal norms and cross-ideological gender bias to justify institutional retrenchment, create administrative compliance, and accelerate structural dismantling. Ultimately, the strategic sidelining of gender equality functions increased institutional vulnerability. Although the Trump administration’s targeting of those functions did not create the vulnerability, it recognized, exposed, and exploited it as part of a wider effort to erode democratic norms. Rebuilding democratic systems and foreign assistance architecture, therefore, will require treating gender equality as a core resilience safeguard rather than a peripheral policy concern. Its strategic targeting is central to the broader authoritarian assault on democracy. Democracy stakeholders must name that pattern, examine the decisions that enabled it, and learn from what unfolded.
Today, the European Commission is presenting its new Gender Equality Strategy for 2026 to 2030. The Strategy embeds gender equality into every aspect of life, online and offline, from education and health to work and public life, and addresses modern threats such as cyberviolence and AI-related risks, which particularly affect women.
While progress has been made, estimations by the European Institute for Gender Equality suggest that, at the current pace of change, it would take 50 years for the EU to reach full gender equality. Disparities among Member States also persist. The new Strategy turns the objectives of the Roadmap for Women's Rights, presented by the Commission and endorsed in 2025 by all Member States, into concrete actions to empower women and girls, engage men and boys, vigorously oppose any backtracking on fundamental rights, and accelerate progress towards a truly gender-equal Europe.
Presented ahead of International Women's Day on 8 March, this Strategy builds on the milestone legislation adopted under the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, including rules on Combating Violence against Women, on Pay Transparency and improving Gender Balance on Corporate Boards, and as well as the implementation of rules on Work Life Balance to promote equal sharing of care responsibilities.
The Deputy Minority Leader, Patricia Appiagyei, has called on young women, particularly students, to actively participate in politics and take up leadership positions.
Speaking during a meeting with members of the TESCON on March 25, Mrs Appiagyei emphasised the need for increased female representation in leadership, noting that women remain underrepresented in key decision-making roles.
She stated that it was mothers, grandmothers, and married women who championed the party’s cause because they believed in its core values. adding that "these values must continue to be emphasised and upheld, as they shape the policies that guide the party."
She stressed that understanding and maintaining these core values is essential, warning that losing sight of them would make it difficult for members to fully appreciate what the party stands for and why they should remain committed.
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, digital platforms have become central to political participation in the country, enabling female politicians, elections candidates, activists and public figures to mobilise communities and shape public debate.However, this visibility has drastically exposed women in politics to various forms of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) : Online harassment, sexualised abuse, defamation, threats and coordinated smear campaigns are routinely used to undermine women’s credibility, silence their voices and deter their participation in political life. Beyond the severe harm inflicted on individual women in politics, TFGBV constitutes a structural threat to all women’s political rights, democratic pluralism and freedom of expression. By reinforcing misogynistic norms and normalising sexist intimidation, it erodes hard-won gains of women’s political participation in Tunisia.
What is at stake extends beyond Tunisia. The 2011 Revolution of Dignity which ended the Ben Ali dictatorship marked a historic turning point, igniting the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and positioned Tunisia as a symbol of democratic possibility in the region and on the African continent. Earlier milestones, from the Personal Status Code of 1956 to progressive reforms including Organic Law No. 58-2017 on the elimination of violence against women and girls (Law 58), have long cast Tunisia as a reference point for women’s rights and legal reform. Tunisia’s trajectory sends signals across Africa and the Middle East about what becomes possible when women’s rights are defended and what collapses when they are politically sacrificed.
The Director-General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Issa Aremu, has called for deliberate constitutional and policy reforms that would increase women’s representation in governance, including the creation of special seats for women in Nigeria’s National Assembly.
Aremu made the call in Ilorin during the 2026 International Women’s Day celebration organised by the institute in collaboration with the Development Research and Projects Centre in Abuja
The event, themed “Advancing Women Through Unity: The Impact of Collective Support – Give to Gain,” brought together labour leaders, market women, people living with Disabilities, government officials and development partners in a citizenship engagement to discuss strategies for strengthening women’s participation in leadership and national development.
Authors: Jennifer Klein, Rachel Vogelstein, and Lauren Hoffman
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the 1995 United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, a watershed moment in the fight for women’s rights, where 189 nations adopted an ambitious Platform for Action to achieve the full and equal participation of women and girls. While the past three decades have produced important gains, this work remains unfinished, and new challenges threaten to reverse progress for women and girls. This report, produced by the Women’s Initiative at Columbia's Institute of Global Politics and GWL Voices, provides an actionable roadmap to advance the full and equal participation of women and girls in the twenty-first century—including in the areas of democracy and human rights, technology, economic participation, and conflict and climate. The report also proposes key levers designed to accelerate the pace of change, including innovative financing, institutional leadership and reform, coalition building, and improved data and research. It concludes with a call to accelerate action towards fulfilling the Beijing Platform and realizing the promise of women’s human rights once and for all.
A new report from the Environmental Voter Project (EVP), shared first with The 19th, finds that far more women than men are listing climate and environmental issues as their top priority in voting.
The nonpartisan nonprofit, which focuses on tailoring get out the vote efforts to low-propensity voters who they’ve identified as likely to list climate and environmental issues as a top priority, found that women far outpace men on the issue. Overall 62 percent of these so-called climate voters are women, compared to 37 percent of men. The gender gap is largest among young people, Black and Indigenous voters.
The nonprofit identifies these voters through a predictive model built based on surveys it conducts among registered voters. It defines a climate voter as someone with at least an 85 percent likelihood of listing climate change or the environment as their number one priority.
“At a time when other political gender gaps, such as [presidential] vote choice gender gaps, are staying relatively stable, there’s something unique going on with gender and public opinion about climate change,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the organization.
Read here the full article published by The 19th News on 14 April 2025.
Image by The 19th News
As smoke from wildfires in Canada smothered New York City in a polluted haze in June 2023, some worried patients called the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center asking if it was safe to come in for their appointments. Was the outside air so unhealthy that they should postpone their visits? Pregnant women expressed concern about how the heightened pollution might affect them and their fetuses. If they did venture outside for any reason, what masks should they wear?
The doctors understood the fears but did not want women to postpone visits, especially if the patients were pregnant. “If people cancel their appointments during pregnancy, it can put them and their baby at risk of health problems,” says Blair Wylie, MD, an obstetrician who had joined Columbia eight months prior to lead its new Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health.
The department changed some appointments to virtual.
Wildfire smoke was not the environmental risk that Wylie expected to address when she moved to New York after leading maternal-fetal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “I was thinking of heat waves. I was thinking of floods,” she says.
Read here the full article published by the Association of American Medical Colleges on 6 June 2024.
Image by the Association of American Medical Colleges
New York, New York
March 10, 2025
AS PREPARED
The United States thanks the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and co-facilitators Cabo Verde and Costa Rica, as well as all participating delegations and civil society partners, for their efforts in developing the Political Declaration.
While we are not a CSW member this year, we engaged in negotiations because the United States strongly supports protecting women and girls, defending their rights, and promoting their empowerment.
We are pleased the Declaration focuses on respecting, protecting, and promoting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women and girls. In signing Executive Orders to defend Americans from unhealthy and extremist gender ideology, President Trump has made clear his Administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
We also appreciate that the text addresses the need to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against women and girls. The Administration of President Trump has committed to protecting women by, among other things, curbing mass migration and securing borders. Violence against women and girls is rampant on migratory routes. Further, as we have seen in many tragic cases in the United States, women and girls are victimized by foreign criminals operating individually or in gangs. We must work against the open-borders ideology that tolerate such assaults on the rights of women.
However, several aspects of the text make it impossible for the United States to support the Declaration. These include, but are not limited to:
Language to Protect Women and Girls
It is the policy of the United States to use clear and accurate language that recognizes women are biologically female and men are biologically male. It is important to acknowledge the biological reality of sex to support the needs and perspectives of women and girls. We are disappointed the Political Declaration did not focus on the needs and perspectives of women and girls through precise terminology.
The United States supports the elimination of discrimination on the basis of all protected classes, including race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, and genetic information. We note the United States is not a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and interpret references to CEDAW as relevant to States Parties and the implementation of their obligations. The United States emphasizes that non-binding declarations such as this Political Declaration do not change the current state of conventional or customary international law or imply that States must join or implement obligations under international instruments to which they are not a party.
Freedom of Opinion and Expression
With regard to paragraph 15(j), we note that in recent years governments have censored speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” governments infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of Americans. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.
Right to Development
We regret the Political Declaration includes language on the purported “right to development,” as this term does not have an internationally agreed meaning. We cannot accept references to this as a “right.”
The 2030 Agenda
Another concern we have about this resolution is its reaffirmation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although framed in neutral language, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans.
In the last U.S. election, the mandate from the American people was clear: the government of the United States must refocus on the interests of Americans. We must care first and foremost for our own – that is our moral and civic duty. President Trump also set a clear and overdue course correction on “gender” and climate ideology, which pervade the SDGs.
Put simply, globalist endeavors like the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs lost at the ballot box. Therefore, the United States rejects and denounces the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, and we will no longer reaffirm them as a matter of course.
Equal Pay for Equal Work
The United States understands the intention of the inclusion of “equal pay for work of equal value” to promote pay equality between men and women, and accepts the formulation on that basis. The United States works to achieve pay equality by observing the principle of “equal pay for equal work.”
Temporary Special Measures
With respect to so-called “temporary special measures,” and other measures intended to achieve parity for women and girls, the United States opposes the use of quotas, targets, or goals for participation based on sex. It is the policy of the United States to protect the civil rights of all Americans and to promote individual initiative, excellence, and hard work. Every citizen, including women and girls, should have an equal right and opportunities, without discrimination, to take part in the conduct of public affairs.
Climate Change
The United States does not support the inclusion of references to climate change in this declaration.
Original post available here.
Guest Editors
Roopa Dhatt, MD, MPA, Georgetown University, USA
Anna Kalbarczyk, DrPH, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, USA
Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 7 December 2025
BMC Public Health is calling for submissions to our Collection on Women's role in politics and public life. We invite research that delves into the role of women in politics and public life, focusing on their leadership, participation, and the challenges they face. We welcome studies that examine gender equality, women's rights, and the impact of women's economic participation on public policy and health outcomes, with the aim of fostering a more inclusive political landscape.
Click here to apply.
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In the ever-evolving political landscape of Nigeria, the struggle for gender equality remains a daunting challenge, particularly in the sphere of elective politics. The ongoingordeals of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and other female politicians serve as painful reminders of the deep-seated misogyny that continues to undermine women’s political participation. Despite constitutional guarantees and international conventions advocating for gender equity, women in Nigeria are still treated as political outsiders, systematically excluded, and viciously maligned.
To opine that there are stubborn walls of misogyny been waged against Nigerian women in politics is not an exaggeration. This is as misogyny is deeply entrenched in Nigeria’s socio-political fabric, manifesting in ways that range from subtle bias to outright violence against women who dare to challenge the status quo. The cultural and traditional expectations placed on women limit their ability to assert themselves in the public sphere. Many still believe that a woman's place is in the kitchen or at best in an appointed, symbolic role rather than in the competitive arena of elective politics.
In fact, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s political journey is a testament to the relentless opposition faced by women in politics. Despite her competence, courage, and determination, she has been subjected to smear campaigns, character assassination, and physical threats. Her case is not isolated. Women like Remi Sonaiya, ObyEzekwesili, and Aisha Yesufu have all faced virulent attacks simply for daring to seek political relevance. The misogynistic environment discourages many women from aspiring to public office, as they are often reduced to objects of ridicule rather than being recognized for their ideas and leadership capabilities.
Read here the full article published by Modern Ghana on 2 March 2025.
Image by Modern Ghana