Women Of Today: In A Position To Change The World w/ Valentina Parenti

She is all about empowering female leaders and entrepreneurs and shining a light on women's potential and strength.

I met Valentina through GammaDonna , a non-profit association she co-founded whose purpose is to tackle the issue of gender imbalance in Italy. The moment I met her, I could feel how kind and true to herself she was. She is a perfect role model in every sense, always pushing hard to succeed and go beyond but also navigating through obstacles and challenges.

I thought it would be beautiful to highlight her leadership and everything she does within her organization. She is also a true inspiration to me and someone whose values I deeply resonate with.

I present to you Valentina Parenti , a wonderful human, entrepreneur, and president & co-founder of GammaDonna.

Isabelle: What do you believe has influenced the choice of your career path the most? How did you end up doing what you do today??

Valentina: My career has always been deeply influenced by my early exposure to the world of communication, having grown up around the offices of lawyer Avv. Giovanni Agnelli, where my mother served as his press officer. This background laid the foundation for my path, especially when my mother launched her pioneering PR and communication agency in the early '80s, one of its kind, notably choosing my name for the agency.?

This endeavor highlighted a path that was somewhat predestined for me. My mother's passion and formidable character, coupled with a work ethic that I admired, guided my initial steps. After graduation, the plan was for me to gain international corporate experience. However, circumstances led me back to Italy to join my mother's company, which eventually became a family business with the addition of my father and brother, enriching the company with their diverse contributions.

"There is nothing more exciting than encountering talent and having the opportunity to highlight it, contributing to its growth, which is what we have done all these years at GammaDonna."

At 25, following a brief international work experience and a sabbatical in Patagonia, I returned to Italy. This marked the beginning of my active involvement in the family business, a blend of four distinct yet complementary spirits, fostering a unique family dynamic within our professional setting. This period also saw the inception of GammaDonna, initially a project for a client, which evolved into a broader initiative underpinning my social vocation.?

The client, a pioneering women's entrepreneurship association, needed to celebrate an important anniversary. Our task was to organize this event, which not only brought businesswomen from all over Italy together but also emphasized networking, discussion on women's entrepreneurship, and the gender gap, including creating an exhibition space for members to professionally showcase their businesses.?

This project, a first of its kind for us at a time when such themes were rarely discussed, underscored the need for visibility, recognition, and a strong business network for women, aligning with the broader objectives of fostering hard work and simplicity within the context of our family's values and the company's mission.

"Focusing on oneself rather than trying to meet the expectations of others allows us to be authentic and true to ourselves. It is the only way to live a happy and meaningful life."

I: In your opinion, what qualities bring women leaders to the table and workplace in general?

V: Generalizing is always a bit risky, isn't it? I think I can point out that women at work are, and I see it with the many women I meet through GammaDonna, driven by more intrinsic motivations rather than what the business demands of them. They consider work as a component of the overall life plan. So, a woman leader, in my opinion, approaches her career with a systemic vision. I find it to be one of the strongest characteristics, and it's a systemic vision that values elements such as purpose, connection with colleagues, and integration into work life. So, in my opinion, one of the most important qualities of a woman leader is precisely this-ability to balance professional and personal leadership.

I: You have been the president and co-founder of GammaDonna association for many years now. What is something you deeply value about your work? What drives you forward?

V: Certainly passion, and above all, the belief in the power of an individual's contribution to the collective good. I believe a lot in this, there are different sayings, "Alone we are a drop, together we are an ocean," or "Alone we go fast, but together we go far." There are all sorts of sayings that over time I have made my own, but I truly believe in them. Another saying that I really like is "Our small thinking does not serve the world."

I don't know if you know Primo Levi; he said that loving one's work constitutes the best concrete approximation to happiness on earth and is a privilege that few have.

I think with GammaDonna, we have this privilege because we have the opportunity to renew our motivation every day by recognizing ourselves in the stories of women we have met in the past twenty years. There is nothing more exciting than encountering talent and having the opportunity to highlight it, contributing to its growth, which is what we have done all these years. The attempt is to take these virtuous examples and make them known to an increasingly wider audience.

I: How have you built confidence and resilience over the course of your career??

V: Well, I am a person who tends to mirror herself in others, and this is not always a good thing, as you teach me. It works well when I receive approval and gratitude, a little less when faced with the judgment of others, right? Over the years, I have worked a lot on this aspect to try to enable a version of myself that knows how to take a break at every milestone reached and give myself a pat on the back, congratulating myself mainly for giving it my all. It's not always necessarily for achieving the maximum result, but for achieving the best I could with the tools I had at that particular moment.?

You talk about self-confidence and resilience; I think that for me, in my personal experience, stopping to analyze and learn from my mistakes but also celebrating the small successes has been fundamental and is still essential for building a balanced self-view and maintaining this self-confidence. Another thing that I certainly try to do constantly to avoid being sucked into what is a quite critical context we are all experiencing is to cultivate a positive mindset and focus on constructive thoughts.

I: What is something that has helped you maintain a work-life balance? Is it more difficult nowadays than ever??

V: The babysitter without whom I would have died a long time ago, but also the fact that my husband is a contemporary man from every point of view. He has always shared both the burden of family care and domestic chores equally, from household chores to taking care of the kids. This is actually vital because you can do whatever you want, but if that burden remains 80%, it becomes very demanding in proportion. The mental load, we always have it.?

Being an entrepreneur has certainly allowed me to enjoy greater flexibility in organizing work and schedules, even though we know well what the flip side is. You might find yourself working at two in the morning or bringing work home on weekends. But it certainly helped me find margins.

One thing that I regret a bit, looking back…There is that African proverb that says "To raise a child, it takes a village." It emphasizes the importance of the community in the process of children's growth and personality development.?

Many times, I sighed, thinking about how nice, healthy, educational, and stimulating it would have been to raise my children with the help of a social support network. Past generations have had it, and it's also a great opportunity to learn.

Unfortunately, I couldn't rely on my parents because, first, I worked with them until they passed away. So evidently, they were with me, I was with them, involved in the business. I didn't have this opportunity, and it saddened me a lot because it would have been, in my opinion, beautiful, useful, and educational for everyone.

I: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your 25-year-old self??

V: I've thought about this question. Um, the advice I would give, the first one that comes to mind, is to spend less time trying to please others and focus as soon as possible on building the best version of oneself. Focusing on oneself rather than trying to meet the expectations of others allows us to be authentic and true to ourselves. It is the only way to live a happy and meaningful life.

I: What women in your life inspire you the most? Did you have any mentors growing up??

V: My mother is for sure the central female figure who inspired me. And if I have to think of other women, Mother Teresa of Calcutta comes to mind, but I don't know exactly why.

I've always been fascinated by the figure of this tiny woman but with extraordinary strength and spirit who managed to do incredible things alone. Despite being religious, the strength with which she reached me as an image and as a message went far beyond.?

I remember exactly when she passed away in 1997; it was August, and I cried while I was at work. I think on the same day or a day before Lady Diana had the accident, and then shortly after Mother Teresa of Calcutta passed away.

I remember thinking "the world will surely be a worse place from this moment on." And these are the people who, as long as they are there, you have the idea that they can emanate a strength, an energy, a light that somehow can infect others, right??

So, I must say that certainly, my mother has been a great inspiration as she came from a very small provincial town and still managed to make an incredible journey with her tenacity and intelligence. Oddly enough, her energy was very masculine and this had its downsides. She was also a mentor in every sense, obviously, someone who has been very close to me, and still, I feel very close.

In my professional journey, the stories of the women I encountered through the GammaDonna Awards have inspired me immensely. These narratives of innovation, resilience, and the determination to address unsolved problems with creative solutions fuel my passion and reaffirm my belief in a better world. Each year, as I engage with these stories, they serve as a beacon of positivity, reinvigorating my commitment to my work and the broader mission of fostering change.

I have a kind of down phase that normally comes at the beginning of the year, after Christmas, traditionally a more seated, more projective moment, and then the boost comes when I manage to launch the GammaDonna award and the nominations start coming in, and I start reading them.?

I: What do you believe we can do more to help women have equal opportunities in the workplace, especially in male-dominated roles?

V: This discussion opens up a whole new world. The problem is mainly cultural, and therefore, the things we should never stop doing are spreading, talking, debating, and providing examples. We specifically chose to try to influence cultural change by bringing role models of self-determination, innovation, positivity, and female success to show that it's possible to reach certain roles and careers even starting from a normal life, right?

If a black girl never gets to see a black woman holding a seat in the Italian Parliament, she will not perceive it as a feasible option, and she might never decide to walk that path. The idea of offering contemporary role models comes from this, to say that this is possible, that we can break some patterns, you just have to want it.

Surely, another choice we made and find very useful is to focus on innovation. We put together a series of elements that can be a winning mix to achieve certain results faster because innovation is something that already gives you an extra competitive advantage.

If you want to start a business, one thing is to choose to follow it according to an already established pattern, and another is to introduce innovative or different elements.?

I: A piece of advice for all the women out there wanting to achieve their goals??

V: I might be a bit old-fashioned here because I realize that what our children see now may seem counter-trend. Still, what matters is not what we are but what we decide to become, and with that, it is very important to work hard to improve ourselves and, above all, believe in ourselves.?

I always say: "If you believe you can do it, if you believe in yourself," it's something that no one can ever take away from you." Considering the unstable and very uncertain period we are moving into, I think it's very important to surround yourself with two types of people: The first type is people who can positively influence us, motivate us to grow, and encourage us to improve and believe in ourselves.?

The second type is competent people because if you have the passion, if you have the vision, and you surround yourself with people who, if possible, are even more competent than you, it's a winning asset because the team with which we make our journey makes the difference and is the real factor of success.?

Today, it is undeniable that alone, we don't go anywhere.