The figure shows an increasing trend in the female employment rate in Milan over the years, with an increase of 6% over the last decade. Furthermore, the female employment rate in Milan has constantly remained around 20 percentage points higher than the national average over the same period.
At the same time, the bottom panel shows that the male employment rate has been higher than the national average, but not as much (76% VS 68%).

In such a context, working women need services to conciliate work and family life, such as the availability of childcare facilities and care services for the elderly.

However, women continue to be less employed than men (69.5% vs. 75.9% in 2021), a gender gap that persists and is even wider nationwide (almost 18%).
Socialinvestment focuses on the investment in appropriate
socialinvestment focuses on investments in appropriate infrastructure and public services that can ‘free’ women’s labour from unpaid care and domestic workloads and create new jobs. Indeed, providing care services for children and the elderly means employing a new workforce in these sectors.

In addition, for couples to share unpaid caregiving and household duties among partners, the socialinvestment paradigm supports flexible employment arrangements and family-friendly regulations, such as prolonged maternity and paternity leaves.