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Background. Gender gap is a neologism that identifies the disparity between social and professional conditions experienced by females compared to males. The disparity increases as one ascends the academic hierarchy. In recent years, the debate has expanded, and more options have been planned for the elimination of the current gender gap. Methods. This research was conducted by examining the landscape of the gender gap, particularly in the academic forensic medicine field. Our analysis involved reviewing papers published between 2006 and 2024, identified through electronic database searches (PubMed). The search terms used were: "gender gap" AND "academic" AND "medicine" AND "leadership." In total, we analyzed 85 papers. Additionally, we examined data from forensic medicine residency programs. Conclusions. The representation of women in medicine is well-known. Despite the increasing number of women in leadership positions in medicine, they still lag significantly behind men. These data highlight a situation that could be seen as grounds for an accusation of "academic abuse". In the Italian forensic residency programs, less than 20% are led by women, and among these, not all hold the rank of full professor. Although a certain rebalancing is already underway, the gap is still significant. There are already regulations obliging local authorities to promote gender equality in councils, companies, and institutions under their jurisdiction. It would be desirable to consider minimum quotas for female participation in university competitions. This would be a first step toward eliminating the gender gap in academic and forensic medical fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women's representation in STEM fields and occupations has increased, science and math continue to be stereotyped as male domains. This paper links psychological and sociological explanations for gendered disparities in STEM by examining the relationship between the local "micro-situational" female learning environment and the gender gap in academic self-concept in math and science. We applied hybrid models to TIMSS 2015 data comprised of a pseudo-panel of repeated measures for individual student and peer achievement, academic self-concept, utility value, and interest-enjoyment value in math/science (at age 14). We analyzed data from three countries, including a subsample of students who were taught by the same teacher in both math and science, thus eliminating unobserved teacher heterogeneity. Results indicate that female peer climate in the classroom is important for understanding how girls' self-concept in math/science is formed, even though it was unrelated to the gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of financial resources is an often-cited hurdle for women pursuing political careers. However, empirical analysis of the dynamics of the private funding of women candidates and its potential implications for their political careers is still scant, particularly for countries outside the anglophone regions. This paper contributes to the scholarly debate by focusing on the gendered patterns in campaign fundraising in Italy, where radical changes to the party funding regime and multiple reforms to the electoral laws may have changed the structure of opportunity for fundraising by women candidates. We analyse patterns of private funding for men and women candidates in four national elections between 1996 and 2018. Our analysis, triangulated with semi-structured interviews with women candidates, shows that differences exist in fundraising patterns between male and female candidates in Italy. It reveals differences in the quality of candidates' fundraising networks and confirms that political affiliation (to right-wing parties) and incumbency have an effect on the amount of donations received, thus granting women candidates greater access to private donations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender disparity in academic careers is a global phenomenon, although the causes and consequences vary in different national contexts. The article focuses on the «leaky pipeline» effect (women are less likely to receive tenure and more likely to leave academic career). The literature accounts for gender inequalities in early stages of career with two different types of explanations: 1) mechanisms of individual «self-selection» (discouragement, less competitiveness, family orientation, etc.); 2) employers' gender bias and discriminatory behavior. Less attention is given to those social processes that look at gender as a «social structure», that is to the structural and cultural factors that operate at various individual, cultural and social levels (micro, meso and macro) and which are produced and (re)produced at various stages of academic career and over time (recruitment, retention and advancement). Based on the ISTAT survey on PhD holders (2018 and 2014 editions, N=32 thousand), the paper analyzes the gender gap in Italy in the probability of accessing the world of academic research (universities or public research institutes) after obtaining PhD, with a post-doc or assistant professor, in both «hard» sciences (STEM) and in human and social sciences (SSH). The analysis yields three main findings: 1) while the gender gap is almost absent in post-doc positions, it re-appears quite evidently in assistant professor positions; 2) the gender gap in assistant professor positions is stronger in some, but not all, STEM disciplinary groups, while it is weaker in all SSH groups; 3) the gender gap does not depend on gender differences in scientific productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real income distribution comparisons are of interest to policy makers across European countries. Nowadays, a crucial component of income inequality remains the discrepancy between men and women, often called the gender gap. Since the gender gap is related to the whole distribution of incomes in a population, popular single metrics are not adequate, and previous studies applied the relative distribution method, a non‐parametric approach to the comparison of distributions. Here, we propose a parametric approach for estimating the relative distribution. Then we extend it to assess the impact of selected covariates—related to the personal characteristics of the samples—on the existing gender gap in both countries. In more detail, models for income were fitted to empirical data from Poland and Italy, from the European Survey of Income and Living Conditions (wave 2018). Afterwards, their parameters were employed to obtain the estimates of relative distribution characteristics. The methods applied in the study turned out to be relevant to describe the gender gap over the entire income range. Finally, the results of the empirical analysis are discussed to reveal similarities and substantial differences between the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had adverse global impacts not only from a health perspective but also, and especially, in the work sphere. Drawing on the literature on gender inequality at work, this study developed four poetic inquiries to investigate how women's working lives were affected by the pandemic in Italy. In particular, we focused on how women's work experience has changed in their relationships with their organizations and with other workers. The findings of the study suggest that pinkwashing (i.e. a profit-driven hypocritical captatio benevolentiae adopted by companies) and mansplaining (i.e. the patronizing attitude of some men in explaining something obvious to a woman) are two critical phenomena that fuel gender inequality in organizations. Furthermore, this study provides pragmatic implications for management and policymakers by recommending a series of actions aimed at enhancing gender equality in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people globally, and it has exacerbated the existing gender inequalities that have affected women. The purpose of this study is to understand the perceptions of women concerning gender inequality in the workplace during the current pandemic. The goal is to give women a voice so they can explain their feelings regarding the problems they face in a pandemic world. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, four poetic inquiries were developed to investigate how the lives of working women were changed during the pandemic in Italy. Poetic methodology is a creative and aesthetic representation of qualitative research that is capable of reporting data with more fluidity and freedom. Findings: The results suggest that the gender gap is increasing and is embodied in a series of relational and economic problems related to remote work, in difficulty in reconciling private and work life and in a series of new telematic violence against women. Practical implications: This study offers practical implications for policymakers by suggesting the application of diversity management initiatives to remove barriers to gender equality. Originality/value: This study, through a poetic approach, is the first to investigate women's perceptions during the pandemic related to difficulties experienced in the work sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse the growth in employment of Italian women, from 1971 to 2009, focusing our attention on younger women, in the 20-34-year age group, using Census and Labour Force Survey data. Women's employment in Italy increased in the first three decades but stopped growing in the last, although in most European countries it has continued to grow. In spite of the rise in education of women and of the important socio-demographic changes that have expanded women's propensity to work, social policies aimed to support the conciliation of work and the family have been very limited compared with other European countries. Cross-country comparisons show that a slower growth in female employment has characterized areas where social policies have been more limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National and international large-scale assessments of mathematics show that, in most nations, males achieve better results than females and Italy is one of the countries with a greater gap. Many research studies in mathematics education have analysed this issue, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the sources and characteristics of this gap. This study focuses on a specific Grade 10 task that requires algebraic manipulations of powers with the same base. Item-level analysis enables the study of gender differences on specific content, before using the lenses of mathematics education theories to interpret macro-phenomena emergeing from standardized assessment results. The quantitative analysis, carried out using the Rasch statistical model, highlights a gender gap in favour of males in this task and, furthermore, a variance in choices of incorrect options between males and females; the interviews conducted provide a key to understanding this phenomenon in terms of didactic contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-income inequality, accompanied by substantial regional differentiation, is still a great challenge for social policymakers in many European countries. One of the important elements of this phenomenon is the inequality between income distributions of men and women. Using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, the distributions of income for Italy and Poland were compared, and the gender gap in these countries was assessed. No single metric can capture the full range of experiences, so a set of selected tools were adopted. The Dagum model was fitted to each distribution, summary measures, like the Gini and Zenga inequality indices, were evaluated, and the Zenga curve was employed to detect changes at each income quantile. Afterward, empirical distributions were compared through a relative approach, providing an analytic picture of the gender gap for both countries. The analysis moved beyond the typical focus on average or median earnings differences, towards a focus on how the full distribution of women's earnings relative to men's compares. The analysis was performed in the different macroregions of the two countries, with a discussion of the results. The study revealed that income inequality in Poland and Italy varies across gender and regions. In Italy, the highest inequality was observed in the poorest region, i.e. the islands. On the contrary, in Poland, the highest inequality occurred in the richest region, the central one. The relative distribution method was a powerful tool for studying the gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study of voter turnout, a gender perspective is useful in many ways. Since in Italy women gained the right to vote relatively late (only in 1946), a gender gap perspective is utmost handy to grasp why women had an immediate and massive participation over the First Republic. It is also relevant for understanding why their institutional representation comparatively still scores low and why women still do not bear a grounded interest for politics. Previous research explains this anomalous behaviour (high turnout coupled with low institutional presence and interest) through the overwhelming social conformism in the Fifties and Sixties as an output of a stark contrast between mass parties, Catholic influence and deep social peer pressure. In the Second Republic, the explanation for the rise of female abstention is related to both the secularization of social and family behaviours and a general disaffection towards politics. This article outlines a long-term read of gender gap in the political turnout (1948-2018) through the aid of two sections (one pointing out the initial characteristics for a strong mobilization of female voters and another pinpointing the reverse phenomenon in the last 30 years). We then offer some points for discussion about attributed meanings, working from within inequalities and possible future effective policies to contain and reduce the gender gap in political turnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian gender wage gap is related to a gap in returns to education which causes a sizable glass ceiling effect. The gap is detected by quantile regressions implemented in different subsets. Quantile regressions allow computation of both the average gap and the divergence in the tails of the wage distribution. Comparison of the equations estimated separately for men and women, reveals a divergence in wage determinants for the average and for all quantiles. The statistical relevance of this divergence is verified by a test of changing coefficients. By repeatedly implementing this test to compare subsets of different regions, cohorts, and education levels, it is possible to rank the factors affecting the gap and to pinpoint at which quantile their impact is greater. Gender turns out to be a relevant source of changes to the coefficients, particularly for the top quantiles, and the regional variable interacts with the returns to education gap, determining a sizeable glass ceiling on southern women’s careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]