Female entrepreneurship: the stars of the “Women Value Company” award

The 100 winning SMEs are 25% Micro Enterprises, 40% Small Enterprises and 35% Medium Enterprises, located 37% in Northern Italy, 29% in the Centre and 34% in the South. 94% have launched initiatives to reconcile employees' professional and personal lives (smart working, crèches, flexibility, canteen, leave, transport facilities). 89% have implemented initiatives to increase employee welfare (bonuses, benefits, health care, leisure and parenting facilities). 37 SMEs have already obtained or applied for gender equality certification. 

The eighth edition of the Award confirms that investing in people and their well-being, welfare and training generates a favourable environment for company and business growth: 93% estimated their turnover to be increasing or stable (YoY); 61% started and/or consolidated export and internationalisation activities; more than half (59%) are SMEs established since 2000 (including 14 start-ups or new companies); manufacturing, services, commerce, healthcare and agriculture are the most represented sectors.

Italy lags behind in women's participation in the world of work: in 2023, our country will rank second to last in Europe in terms of female activity rate (57.7%, 13 points lower than the EU27 average), better only than Romania. This is a heritage of skills and abilities to be exploited, especially in a context in which many companies report difficulties in finding a qualified workforce: among young people (25-34 years old), the percentage of graduates is significantly higher for women (37.1% vs 24.4% for men) who, however, more frequently than men, find themselves in jobs for which they are over-educated (29.4% of female employees vs 25.4% for men).

However, distinctive features of the Italian production fabric emerge, which can offer incentive to make up this gap: there is a greater presence of women on the board of companies active in typical Italian-made sectors such as the fashion system or the agri-food chain, in which the ability to combine the aspects of craftsmanship, quality and flexibility has proved successful. 47.4% of benefit corporations - i.e. companies whose corporate purpose also includes the purpose of generating a positive impact for society and the environment - have at least one woman on their board, while in the rest of the sample - comparable by sector and size - the percentage drops to 37.1%. The role of women has also increased in the processes of introducing innovation: the percentage of female-dominated innovative start-ups has risen from 13.5% in 2017 to 15.1% in 2024.