When Italian president Giorgio Napolitano appointed 10 expert consultants to lead Italy out of its political gridlock late last month, it would appear he could not find one qualified woman to add to the list. The list comprises 10 men, including former European leaders to notable economists, who are certainly qualified to address the crucial reforms the country needs to move forward. But surely there must have been at least one woman in the whole country to add balance and perspective to the mix. Apparently not, but Napolitano insists that it isn\u2019t a reflection of a lack of qualified women in the country. \u201cIt\u2019s not true there aren\u2019t any women among the wise,\u201d said Napolitano being called to task on the topic. \u201cThat touches on the ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s choice was met with a flutter of critical tweets and condescending comments from Italy\u2019s best-known female politicians, but the reality of the situation is that it proves once again that women\u2019s equality is at a standstill in Italy. \u201cIt\u2019s sad, very sad,\u201d said Emma Bonino, former European commissioner and leader of the Radical party after Napolitano\u2019s list was announced. \u201cThis commission does not reflect the makeup of our society. It denies the presence of women in society. It is not a far-sighted choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napolitano instead says that his commission is temporary and in no way meant to be representative of the country as a whole. He says it was an emergency measure in a desperate moment, and that the 10 \u201cwise men\u201d were carefully selected from a group of political-party leaders and influential business experts who just happen to be predominantly men. But just three weeks before his appointments, he gave a speech on International Women\u2019s Day in which he seemingly lamented gender inequality in the country. \u201cThe level of equality between the sexes is an indicator, a thermometer of the degree of civilization of a nation,\u201d he said in his prepared statement. \u201cBut even today in Italy, where the status of women can not be compared to the past, much work remains to be done.\u201d So why didn\u2019t he start the work by setting a better example?<\/p>\n
Lorella Zanardo is a documentary filmaker and author who has dedicated her life\u2019s work to exposing inequality in the country through her film Il Corpo Delle Donne and educating the next generation of Italians about gender equality. She believes Napolitano\u2019s explanation that women weren\u2019t slighted intentionally, but she says that on a symbolic level, not having equal gender representation on a committee tasked with guiding the future of the country sends the message that equality is not a priority when building that future. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sick to death and this is the hundredth time these symbols point to one thing, that women are not important and are not considered relevant on the political agenda,\u201d she told The Daily Beast. She is especially disappointed that women have no say in the immediate future of the country when Italian women actually won 30 percent of the vote in elections in February that did not result in a majority government by any party or coalition. She believes part of the problem is that women are not better represented in the media, either as authors of articles and programming or as protagonists. \u201cWomen are only sidebars in the news,\u201d she says, pointing to the lack of female journalists in the nations\u2019s top daily newspapers and to the fact that news about women is often when they are the victim of another murder. When Italian president Giorgio Napolitano appointed 10 expert consultants to lead Italy out of its political gridlock late last month, it would appear he could not find one qualified woman to add to the list. The list comprises 10 men, including former European leaders to notable economists, who are certainly qualified to address the crucial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-important-news-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nClick here for the full story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"