An innovative tool for the national landscape to measure, in a structured and comparable way, the presence and role of women in the digital world.
In 2021, as Donne 4.0, we launched the Observatory on the Digital Gender Impact of the PNRR, defining 12 KPIs in four strategic areas to assess how innovation policies were truly including women in the digital world.
From that experience, together with Loredana Grimaldi, the idea of generalizing the method was born, also because analyzing existing indices in Italy and Europe in this sector, none address the topic in depth, especially with respect to women’s digital work, while also offering regional analyses.
This gave rise to the Digital Gender Gap Index, developed thanks to the scientific collaboration with the G. Tagliacarne Study Center: an index that measures the digital gender gap at the national and regional level, with the aim of guiding more targeted policies and actions to increase the presence and impact of women in ICT.
The model is based on 5 key areas:
– Economic leadership
– Digital education
– Employment and ICT pay gap
– Access to and daily use of technologies
– Academic and scientific leadership
What does this first edition show us?
The results aren’t surprising, but they are very clear:
• National average value: 0.338/1 – far from parity.
• Marche is the most virtuous region (0.445).
• Campania is last (0.177).
• No region reaches a value of 1.
We have also begun to think in terms of regional clusters, grouping together regions with similar values. An interesting, even intuitive, first point: the Southern regions show very similar patterns, with some differences that we will explore further.
To plan the next edition (2026), we will work on an even broader discussion within Donne 4.0 together with President Roberta Russo, Loredana Mancini, and Agnese Interdonato, and with other organizations interested in the topic.
We began on November 13th and thank Marco Pini, Chiara Bellusci (Digital Republic Fund), Barbara Leda Kenny (Giacomo Brodolini Foundation), Dora Iacobelli (ASviS – Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development), and Tiziana Pompei (Unioncamere – Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture) for their valuable contributions.
It turns out that the digital gender gap in Italy is still wide, but with solid data, widespread awareness, and concrete actions, we can close it.
The digital future needs women: measuring the gap is the first step to closing it.
