Indicators for the practice of gender equality in Italy have improved over the past 15 years, but inequalities are still widely present in the media sector, and this seems to be a non-issue in most newsrooms, as well as in media governance. According to Paola Dalle Molle (committee for Equal Opportunities of the Order of Journalists) and Fabiana Martini (council member of Assostampa), there have recently been slow but evident improvements in some areas. The first woman ever was elected vice-president of the Order of Journalists council in 2017, and an Equality Committee was appointed by the Order of Journalists in November 2019, while Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana(FNSI) [National Federation of the Italian Press] has had a gender committee since the late 1990s. Notwithstanding, the overall situation in the profession still appears highly problematic at different levels.
The number of women working in the sectorhas grown over the years, as a result of the increasing number of women enrolled in communication and journalism courses, where they account for more than half of tertiary-level graduates for media-related careers (EIGE, 2013). But adequate attention is not given, in academic education as well as in vocational training, to aspects pertaining the specific conditions and needs of women and men as both subjects in the news and newsmakers (French et al., 2019).
The second Agcom journalism observatory indicates that women represent 41.6 per cent of employed journalists (Agcom, 2017). According to the latest survey by the Order of Journalists, out of the 100,000 journalists in the country, women aged below 35 represent 46 per cent, ages 35–64 compose 43 per cent, and 64+ drops to 20.11 per cent. Meaningful changes have characterised the profession over three decades, yet different patterns of inequality persist in news topic addressed by women professionals (whereby women report about society and culture, or health and legal issues, but not about the “hard news” such as politics and economy; this is often referred to as “horizontal segretation”), job guarantees, pay gaps, and informal barriers to career advancement.
In a context where eight of ten journalists are freelance, with little protection and very low wages, women most easily fall into a specific category named precarie (precarious jobs, grammatically articulated in the feminine precisely because this emerges as a “gendered issue” – see also Indicator C5 – Journalists’ job security), with implications in terms of limited guarantees and available financial resources, limited turnover in the newsroom, but also emerging self-sustained journalism models (Agcom, 2017). The average annual salaryfor women is EUR 52,081, versus EUR 66,611 for men. The gap is above 19 per cent, but the biggest differences are found in top roles, where the average salary is around EUR 82,000 for men, but EUR 75,000 for women (INPGI, 2015).
Shortcomings are also evident in relation to the number of female journalists who make the news by signing articles, particularly those working in the print media, and in relation to the news topics addressed by women and men journalists, with political and economic news mostly reported by men (Azzalini & Padovani, 2016).
Unequal are also organisational cultures, accounting for the limited presence of women in decision-making positions in news companies as chief executive officers and members of the board, as well as at operational levels. According to the data collected for the EIGE (2013) report Advancing gender equality in decision-making in media organisations, in a number of selected national media, across all management levels, women constituted around one-third of senior staff placed in decision-making positions. However, only 16 per cent of women were found in top-level positions (EIGE, 2013). None of the leading media outlets selected for the MDM 2021 study is led by a woman. Although public service companies, in general, comply more fully than private organisations with national provisions for gender equality, recent developments in the Italian public service RAI signal a persistent problematic reality.
Furthermore, the EIGE (2013) study showed that no single woman was a member of the board of the independent media regulator Agcom in 2012 (while the average female representation amongst the 213 board member positions across the EU was 31%). Today, the commissioners of Agcom are all men, except for Elisa Giomi, who was appointed in 2019 following public calls for the inclusion of women in the management of public authorities.
Finally, looking at gender participation in leading positions in the various entities that represent the profession, only the Istituto Nazionale di Previdenza dei Giornalisti Italiani [National Welfare Institute of Italian Journalists] pension fund is currently governed by a woman. In 2017, the first woman was elected vice-director of the Order of Journalists (Elisabetta Cosci), two out of twenty Regional Order of Journalists are led by women, and there are three women out of eight members in the FNSI secretariat.
Considering the legal framework, codes of conduct, and good practices, no specific study has been conducted on the extent to which gender mainstreaming has been adopted in policies for the media sector, across levels, platforms, and companies, but little normative provisions have been put in place to address inequalities. The national legal framework for the media, law 112/2004, does not include any specific reference to gender equality or gender mainstreaming. Agcom has issued guidelines in recent years related to the respect of human dignity and non-discrimination (European Parliament and Council, 2016) and recent Agcom decisions deal with fair representation of the image of women in information and entertainment programmes, but do not include specific indicators (Agcom decisions 442/17/CONS & 157/19/CONS). Relevant but widely disregarded is the Codice Nazionale per le Pari Opportunità [National code for equal opportunities] (Republic of Italy, 2006) that speaks about “positive actions in the audiovisual sector”, stating that the public service licenced entity should promote actions to eliminate any condition of disparity (European Union, 2006: art. 49). Another development worth mentioning is the 2017 national Contratto di Servizio[Service Contract] that licences the RAI, which establishes the principle of equal opportunities in public media operations and prescribes regular monitoring activities. As of 2020, RAI seems to be the only media outlet that has adopted a specific gender equality policy alongside a policy to prevent and sanction gender-based harassment in the newsroom.
What emerged from the interviews conducted with editors-in-chief and journalists in the leading media is a prevailing gender-unaware attitude and often gender blindness (“Let me think… How many men and women do we have here in the newsroom? No, I don’t think we have problems in this respect…”). Interviews have also highlighted a diffused aggressive attitude within the newsrooms towards women professionals who are vocal and speak out on social media. The combination of a lack of awareness and unsupportive attitude within media outlets becomes particularly problematic (as discussed below and in other indicators) when there is a need to acknowledge and address instances of abuse and violence against women journalists, both offline and online.
Equal opportunities commissions are now a feature of media unions, while a number of civic networks are also active in conducting advocacy, such as Pari o Dispare [Even or Odd], the Observatory on Gender Discrimination, Se non ora quando [If not now, when], a movement which attempts to improve the social position of women in Italy, and Donne in Quota [Women on High], a civic organisation that fosters women’s representation in society and politics. There also exists a major EU-funded project, Advancing Gender Equality in Media Industries, co-coordinated by the University of Padova between 2017 and 2019. Advancing Gender Equality in Media Industries has created a set of unprecedented tools accessible online: a database of global good practices, a series of thematic learning units with video lectures and interviews with experts, and an app to carry out media monitoring activities translated in English, French, and Spanish.
