SPECIALIZATION COURSE "GENDER CULTURES AND STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING EQUALITY IN BUSINESS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS"
Culture and expertise to promote gender equality
Six Universities involved, 22 lectures and a multidisciplinary approach touching law, economy, philosophy, sociology, design, and communication. The Università degli Studi di Milano hosts the advanced course “Gender cultures and strategies to promote equality in companies and public administrations”.
More than forty years have passed since the adoption of the Cedaw, the UN Convention for the elimination of every form of discrimination towards women. Almost twenty years have passed since the approval of the European directive 113 in 2004, that “implements the rule of equality among men and women”. However, there are still huge gender inequalities (also) in the working world.
According to the latest Eurostat data, in Italy only one woman in two works. And those working women get an average pay which is 5% less than the one of colleagues man. Not to mention other cultural factors, more complex to quantify but crucial in the construction of that ceiling glass hindering female leadership.
Conventions, guidelines, and data prove not only the complexity of gender discriminations, but also the importance of promoting specific and transversal approaches and skills. From this need was born the advanced course “Gender cultures and strategies to promote equality in companies and public administration”, conceived by the Interuniversity Research Center in Gender Cultures. In this course six universities are involved: Università degli Studi di Milano, Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca, Politecnico di Milano, Università commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele and Università di Lingue e Comunicazione–Iulm.
Gender violence, art, grammar, constitutional principles, good business practices: this course follows a multidisciplinary approach, involving teachers of law, economy, philosophy, sociology, design, and communication. This program is for all those people who want to work in companies or public administrations. The aim is to give the necessary means to elaborate policies, practices, and organizational solutions able to guide towards gender equality, useful to get the gender equality certification introduced by the law 162 in 2021 too.
“The aim is to train professional figures with the culture, preparation and skills needed to promote effective and innovative solutions to fight discriminations in business contexts” says Marilisa D’Amico, Full Professor of Constitutional Law, Protector of Legality, Transparency, and Equality of Rights in the Università degli Studi di Milano, and scientific coordinator of the course.
The interest about this topic is confirmed by the huge number of students: more than 50 people are enrolled. Lectures are on every Wednesday, from the 19th of April till the 28th of June, starting at 2:30 p.m. and finishing at 6:30 p.m., 44 hours in total. It is possible to attend lectures in a “mixed way”: in class, in the Università degli Studi di Milano, or from home, by Microsoft Teams.
The multidisciplinary approach is consistent with the typical one followed by the Interuniversity Research Center in Gender Culture: it was born in 2013 and from 2021 to 2023 directed by the Professor Marilisa D’Amico. Here teachers of different subjects and from different Universities collaborate with one common goal, established by the status of the center: “To boost studies, research, and positive actions about gender culture, to help in the growth and diffusion of the respect of women’s dignity and expertise”.
