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.
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