Italy’s first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is proof that a talented, fiercely determined woman can rise to the top in a society known for its traditional machismo. Yet the recent battle over a new board for Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, the state-owned lender and strategic investor, also demonstrates how casual unthinking patriarchy still dominates much of Italian public life.
In 2020, the law was amended to extend what were initially conceived as temporary quotas for another nine years, while raising the quota to 40 per cent. According to headhunter Egon Zehnder’s most recent biennial global board diversity tracker, Italy is now one of just four countries in the world — alongside Norway, France and New Zealand — in which women account for more than 40 per cent of board members of the country’s biggest companies.