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Abstract
The involvement of people of both genders in public life is connected with improvements in the quality of administrative action because it brings about greater pluralism of ideas and sensitivity to equal opportunities. The transposition into public law of the idea of gendered citizenship would be useful as an ideal foundation for rules regarding equal treatment of men and women. Specific aspects of existing legal instruments in Italy are analyzed, along with the implications of current best practices. This analysis of the elements that compose the legal paradigm of gender citizenship offers relevant outcomes for the future action of legislators and policymakers, in Europe and around the globe.
Notes
From a methodological point of view, this article is focused on Italy for reasons of synthesis and makes no real comparison with other legal systems. However, when possible, useful references will be cited that provide data regarding other national systems (Crook, Citation2014; Gagliarducci & Paserman, Citation2012; Hughes, Citation2011; Park, Citation2012) or the EU one (Kantola, Citation2010).
“Cons. St.” is here used to indicate the Consiglio di Stato, which is the Italian administrative supreme court; “Tar” means “Tribunale amministrativo regionale” and indicates the first-instance regional administrative courts.
With reference to the international landscape, according to the 2008 report of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the factors that may contribute to increasing the female presence in legislative bodies include support by the majority political parties and the parliamentary committees, the existence of good rules governing parliamentary functioning, and the positive action of cross-party networks of women. Legislative provision of rules of law about gender quotas seems not to be, in itself, a crucial factor (Inter-Parliamentary Union, Citation2008; and from the same perspective, the Polish national experience, Śledzińska-Simon & Bodnar, Citation2013). However, other evidence from recent research indicates that quotas make a difference regardless of the electoral system; in fact, wherever they are provided for, there are generally more women in the parliament (UNIFEM, 2008, esp. p. 22).
One could say that Italy is also in an intermediate position in the international context, in light of the results of the more recent annual World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Reports. In the Citation2013 Report, Italy was ranked at the 71st position among 136 countries; in the 2014 Report, it was ranked at the 69th position among 142 countries (see http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR14/GGGR_CompleteReport_2014.pdf).
Art. 117 of the Italian Constitution provides two lists of subjects. For the subjects in the first list, the national legislature has exclusive power; for the subjects in the second list, the national and regional legislatures have concurrent powers, and the first must pose the general principles. For subjects not mentioned, the regions have an exclusive legislative power.