In Italy, women find themselves on the wrong side of a gender disparity problem in the decision-making structures of industry.

The FMD began addressing this problem in 2003 through the promotion of an official agreement between the FMD, the Municipality of Rome and the UIR Femmenile Plurale, the women department of the Unione degli Industriali di Roma (UIR), the Roman industrial confederation. This led to an educational programme with a course and industrial placement for the young graduate women participating in it.

In 2003, the FMD began addressing the problem of gender disparity in industry’s decision-making structure through the creation and implementation of an educational programme on Women and New Technology run together with UIR Femmenile Plurale, the women department of the Unione degli Industriali di Roma (UIR), the Roman industrial confederation.

This programme was born out of a stimulus from the Department of Policy for Equal Opportunities of the Municipality of Rome and is targeted exclusively to young female graduates (under 28 years old) or with brief working experience.

It aims to enhance female graduates’ knowledge of the challenges they face in their future careers and the role new technologies play in enhancing opportunities and entrepreneurship potential in the knowledge society.

It also aims at facilitating work placement opportunities for female graduates in the companies that are members of UIR. More long-term, it aims at promoting, in the companies of Rome and Lazio, a culture of meritocracy and equal opportunities that fully recognises women’s potential and talent to serve at all organizational levels.

In July 2003, an official agreement was signed between the Municipality of Rome and the Unione degli Industriali di Roma. This agreement provided the framework for the start of activities leading to the formulation of the Programme Women and New Technology aimed at promoting the presence and development of women in Roman enterprises. 

This was followed by the creation of a network of mentors with female personalities from the world of enterprise, government, culture and finance. Members of this network could give testimony of their successful careers, complementing the work-placement opportunities to be provided by UIR company members.

In March 2004, a seminar on Women and New Technology took place and in November 2004 the first pilot course kicked off with the participation of 20 young women from scientific, humanistic and economic disciplines.

In 2005, the thematic blog “donneict” (www.donneict.it) also started with the aim of stimulating the formation of a community with the participants to the course.

In 2006, a second course took place involving 28 graduates and, with the sponsorship of the training company Challenge SpA, a course grant on “Development of Managerial Competence” (Sviluppo delle Competenze Manageriale) was instituted in memory of the late Raffaella Alibrandi, who led the start of the programme on the side of the Unione degli Industriali di Roma. The grant will be given to the best participant in the course “Women and New Technology.”