The socio-economic gender gap in Italy: a territorial analysis

Abstract

This paper proposes an experimental analysis of socio-economic gender inequality in Italy using the information potential of integrated administrative archives. There are several international indices to measure gender inequality at the national level, but they are not able to reflect territorial heterogeneity. Thus, a measure of socio-economic gender gap has been created to allow a comparative analysis of the Italian provinces/metropolitan cities. A set of indicators are analysed and a composite index is constructed. The dimension with the best performance in Italy is education; women have better values than men in the individual indicators. The analysis of the individual indicators of work and income confirms the strong disadvantage of women. It also shows a North-South dualism: the gender gap in the work dimension is greater in the Southern provinces, while the gender gap in income is greater in the North, especially in the North-East. The composite index highlights a greater gender gap in some provinces of the South but also in some provinces of Central and Northern Italy.