Working Women: Are They Better Off in the USA or Italy?

Where do working women have it better?? In Italy or the USA?? I asked this question to my LinkedIn community this summer, and a resounding 70% voted for the USA.? As a proud American, believing this to be the land of opportunity and knowing the job market is stronger here than in Italy, I thought the majority was probably correct.? But these were just opinions.? I wanted facts, so I did some research.?The findings surprised me.

The Glass Ceiling Index

Every year the Economist Magazine publishes its "Glass Ceiling Index Report" (GCI)." Glass Ceiling" refers to an invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing in their careers. The report measures the role and influence of women in the workforce in the 29 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).? It assesses women’s opportunities for equal treatment at work across 10 indicators such as the gender pay gap, parental leave, childcare costs, educational attainment, representation in senior management, and political jobs.

I expected to find women in the USA to rank #1 on the list. They weren’t. Women in the USA is ranked #22 out of the 29 countries.? Italy is #16.? Iceland is #1.??

The report revealed that in the USA, the percentage of women who are CEOs and board members at Fortune 500 companies has grown, as have legislators. But women CEOs represent only 10.6% of the Fortune 500. Women board members represent just 30%, and less than 30% of state governors are women. Since females represent slightly higher than 50% of our population, and 63% of all master’s degrees in the U.S. are currently earned by women (statistica.com), I needed to understand what was going on here.

Bewildered and deflated, I spoke to Debra Lancaster, Executive Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, in search of barriers that keep working women in America down.

The Motherhood Penalty

Lancaster pointed to the “motherhood penalty” as one of the biggest challenges for American women in the workforce. She explained that motherhood can have a great effect on the trajectory of a woman’s career in the USA.? Women here are still the ones primarily concerned with the care of their children, and let’s be honest, they are also the ones who can physically bear children!??

Unfortunately, the US continues to be the only OECD country not to offer any paid maternity or paternity leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave at the federal level, but according to Healthline, only 40% of women qualify for it.? The average length of maternity leave is 4 weeks.? Only 3 U.S. states have an active policy that may give some sort of benefits (California, New Jersey and Rhode Island).?

A full 25% of U.S. women are forced to return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth to support their families. Lancaster believes that implementing a year of paid leave, like many other countries, could contribute greatly to gender equality overnight.

And it doesn’t get much easier for families as the baby ages. Childcare in America is expensive.? This is confirmed by a 2024 survey by Care.com which revealed Americans spend an average of 24% of their household income on childcare.? Many Americans don’t have family nearby to help care for their children, so leaving them with the nonni is not an option.

Mothers frequently need to take years away from the workforce to care for their children (after 2 kids, many calculate it might be more expensive to work), making them re-enter the workforce at a lower level than men, and always scrambling to catch up to where they could have been had they not taken the time off.? As a result, their overall earnings end up being lower than had they never taken time off.

Gender Payment Gap in America

Although men cannot legally be paid more than women for the same job, overall women together make 84% of what men make.? This is because of the types of fields where women are strongly represented. Careers such as nurses, nurses aides, home care workers, and public school teachers are dominated by women.? These care-related jobs are not given the respect they deserve, and this is reflected in their lower salaries.

Advocating for themselves

From what Lancaster hears, even in highly professional fields such as law, women are frequently assigned helping or supporting roles.? And here, too, these supporting roles just aren’t valued in the same way other work is.?

Women need to advocate for themselves, but unlike men, when women become assertive they often experience negative reactions, due to unconscious bias.

Unconscious bias

Despite the law, states Lancaster, some discrimination still exists in places, even if it might be unconscious. Women get judged differently than men. Women may be considered more on their behavior or disposition, for example on their laugh or “sounding too aggressive.” An assertive man is often viewed merely as assertive, whereas an assertive woman is often unfairly viewed as aggressive.

Some employers may also believe women are not as committed or competent as men, perhaps due to their childcare responsibilities, making them more likely to be passed over for promotions.???

Toxic Masculinity

There’s still a toxic masculinity in this culture, according to Lancaster.? Toxic masculinity is that ultra-competitive, dog-eat-dog work style that helps keep men at the head of the hierarchy. ? And it makes women want to leave.??

How Italian Women Find Working in the USA

As a coach for Italian professionals working in the USA, I’ve asked my clients about whether they feel women have it better in the USA or Italy. Many Italian women say they prefer working here.? Yes, the lack of childcare and unpaid family leave is a definite negative.? But they claim there are more work opportunities for women here, especially those with responsibility, and that they are treated with more respect, thanks to the sexual harassment laws.? They report feeling safer working in the American workplace.??

However, they have discovered that speaking too assertively might make them appear too “bossy.”? Finding the right way to communicate to sound competent and assertive yet not aggressive, and knowing when to sound “nicer” when appropriate to be more likable is a challenge for ALL women in the workplace. But coming from another country with a different communication style makes this balancing act all the more difficult, and many of my female clients have found this significantly challenging.

What Needs to Be Done for Working Women in America

To make life better for working women in the USA, Lancaster suggested the following:

1. ?Create legislation for Parental Leave and Childcare

This will keep women in the workforce allowing them to grow in leadership roles.

?2. Elect more women lawmakers

By understanding better what women face, they can create and pass legislation to help women in the workforce.

?3. Equal Expectations of Men at Home?

Men should continue helping out in childcare, parental care, and housework.? Each generation has been improving in this.

?4. Increased mentorship of women at work

This includes preparation for work, such as encouraging women to go into fields where they are currently underrepresented.

The Verdict

So do working women have it better in the USA or Italy?? The Glass Ceiling Index ranks working women higher in Italy, but do these numbers reflect the true level of satisfaction women experience in their working lives? Possibly. The biggest barrier overall, though, seems to be the Motherhood Penalty. If women in the USA were afforded the same parental leave as those in Italy, I suspect the USA would rank much higher. What do you think?

If you are a native Italian speaker who wants to advance their career in the USA, send me a DM on LinkedIn or an email to: [email protected].? We can discuss your goals and develop a plan to help you reach your full potential through improved communication and cultural awareness. You can also check out my website at: www.effectiveenglish.us