(Rome, 11 (June) — A younger, more educated and increasingly female local administrative class. This is the picture painted by Simona Mulè, Coordinator of the Board of Women Administrators of ANCI Lazio and Equality Counsellor for the Province of Latina, who spoke at FORUM PA Pop in the “Innovation Networks” segment hosted by Sonia Montegiove.
The starting point is the ANCI Dossier “Women in Municipalities”. The numbers tell of a transition already underway: those who administer municipalities are now on average younger—49 years old compared to their male colleagues« 52—and more often graduates. Above all, Mulè underlined, in Lazio women administrators now lead departments with a strong economic and infrastructural impact, from Public Works to Urban Planning and the Ecological Transition. A change that, he observed, »is a structural necessity for the quality of public action," even before it is a matter of representation.
The most striking figure, however, concerns the administrative apparatus as a whole. In local authorities, women account for 58% of permanent staff and over 56% of municipal secretaries: a presence that, in effect, underpins their day-to-day operations. «If the backbone of the public administration is already female,» she stated, ‘the role of the Equality Councillor must evolve: no longer merely legal protection, but a lever for organisational development.’ Hence the call to address the remaining imbalances, starting with the use of part-time work, which affects women far more than men.
A look, finally, at the new generations. With the “Equality in Action!” competition, which awarded students and institutions such as “Alfieri” and “Ambassadors of Equality”, Mulè reaffirmed the centrality of the educational factor: «Equality is built first and foremost through culture and daily behaviours», and schools remain «the privileged place to develop this awareness in tomorrow’s citizens». Because, he concluded, getting young people used to dialogue with institutions is the condition for having local authorities ready for the challenges of the digital transition.