STEM careers and gender equality, our commitment
The professions of the future will be increasingly oriented towards science and technology. According to the 2020 McKinsey study “The future of work in Europe”, by 2030 Europe will see the creation of 4 million new jobs involving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skills: this sector, in fact, will see the largest increase in absolute terms.
Italy is also following a similar trend to the rest of Europe: graduates in science and technology are the most sought after by companies in our country and the employment rate for graduates in STEM subjects is substantially higher than the overall rate.
Nevertheless, when it comes to the employment rate of women in these professions, Italy is ranked in last place in Europe.
Why? Today career choices are still influenced by gender stereotypes that take shape as early as elementary school, often unconsciously determining girls’ future educational and career choices.
Indeed, a global study conducted by UNESCO showed that only 30% of girls choose to pursue studies related to STEM subjects.
The gender gap in STEM subjects not only penalises women in terms of professional opportunities, it also impoverishes the corporate world, research and, more generally, society as a whole.
Studies carried out by the European Institute for Gender Equality demonstrate that the elimination of the male-female disparity in STEM fields would have a significant positive impact on the economic growth of the European Union in the coming decades.
To promote gender equality and female empowerment, the United Nations General Assembly designated 11 February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This anniversary has assumed an increasingly important role; last year it saw the publication of the highest number of research papers into women and STEM related fields.
Our commitment
In line with our Diversity&Inclusion policy, we are promoting a series of initiatives with the goal of encouraging young women to pursue degrees in scientific and technical fields and digital technologies, shortening the distance between the worlds of education and work while making the energy industry more inclusive and diverse.
In November 2020, we launched “Tech Talks”, a cycle of online meetings that feature nationally and internationally accomplished women from the worlds of science, culture, business and the entertainment industry. The goal of the project is to raise awareness among young people about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) skills. Even more specifically, it aims to showcase to female students the opportunities for personal, social and professional development that the world of STEM subjects offers, while working to overcome the gender stereotypes and cultural prejudices that undermine young women’s choices to study science subjects at university. Guest speaker at the first meeting was Ersilia Vaudo Scarpetta, astrophysicist and Chief Diversity Officer at the European Space Agency, who shared her experience in an enthralling speech.
The second edition of "Tech Talks,” in December 2021, featured Raffaella Ida Rumiati, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at SISSA (the International School for Advanced Studies) in Trieste, and Filomena Floriana Ferrara, Corporate Social Responsibility Country Manager at IBM. Using their respective research backgrounds, they explained how STEM subjects are fundamental in giving shape to an innovative and sustainable future and how these fields need creative and passionate people like women, who are all too often the victims of prejudice.
In 2019, in order to inspire young women to pursue an interest in the world of science and technology, we organized Women in Tech, an online event that attracted thousands of participants, generating more than two thousand conversations, almost eight thousand interactions and a potential media exposure of 28 million hits.
This initiative evolved out of our project Girls in ICT, which has been active since 2016, in which women who are experts and managers from the world of IT and digital technologies talk to female students aged between 16 and 25 about the benefits and career opportunities of STEM degrees.
To enable young women to really experience what a working day for a manager in this field is really like, in 2018 and 2019 we created the shadowing experience Leaders for a Day. The initiative offered students in the final two years of four high schools the opportunity to immerse themselves for an entire day in the working environment and technologies of Enel at its offices in Rome, supported by tutors from the Global Digital Solutions (GDS) division.
Furthermore, along with other important companies in 2017, we participated in the project Girls in Motion, a ‘learning tour’ which gave 20 female students the opportunity to visit sites of Italian industrial excellence (maintenance systems, operating rooms, construction sites and workshops) to explore and share women’s experiences in tech culture. In 2016, with Girls go Tech, we organized a one-day event in the form of a training contest in which 60 female students, again with the help of our tutors, worked in teams to design and pitch concepts for new products and services linked to the energy sector.
An effective strategy
We have always endeavored to attract the top talents. Initiatives to promote STEM professions are enabling students to learn more about us as an innovative, forward-looking company engaged in dialogue with the new generations. This was highlighted by Universum Global, an agency specialized in employer branding, whose 2021 survey of the most attractive employers for Italian university students, ranked us in first place in the utilities sector, and in the Top 3 for STEM students.
Our commitment to ensuring gender equality has been recognized for the third year running in the Gender Equality Index 2021 (GEI), Bloomberg’s ranking of 418 companies worldwide in terms of gender inclusion initiatives and transparency. Our Group stood out for its actions for promoting female representation on the Board of Directors, in top management positions and in new hires, as well as ensuring equal pay, social benefits and work/life balance solutions for everyone.
Finally, we are the only Italian company quoted on the FTSE MIB 40 to make the Top 20 ranking of Gender Equality in Europe and the number one in Equileap’s Gender Equality in Italy index, which ranks companies that excel in terms of gender equality issues.