Women's rights in Italy and around the world: a long-standing challenge that remains unresolved

In a world still designed primarily by men and for men, women's rights continue to be questioned, ignored or openly violated.

Although the Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the equality of all people regardless of gender, the reality is quite different: in many societies - including our own - women continue to suffer discrimination, abuse and violence precisely because they are women. This is because power is still largely in the hands of men, thus influencing culture, the economy and institutions.

In many societies, girls are seen as an economic burden on families, who often consider early marriage the only solution to reduce their economic difficulties; women are often excluded from political decisions and their role is reduced to that of caregiver, without any economic or social recognition.

From economic independence to the gender pay gap, from the use of language still steeped in stereotypes to violence against women in all its forms, there is still much to be done to guarantee women's rights.

We work every day to promote women's rights and tackle patriarchy, building societies in which gender is not a cage, but an opportunity for free expression.

  • What we do for women and their rights in Italy

    In Italy, we work to promote women's rights through three fundamental pillars:

    • direct intervention

    • awareness raising

    • advocacy and original research by our Study Centre.

    These interventions are not separate but reinforce each other to create lasting social and political change. How do we do this?

    • We support women in situations of violence or vulnerability

    • In the WeWorld Women's Spaces – seven throughout Italy – we welcome, listen to and support women in situations of vulnerability and violence with pathways to autonomy and independence. The individual and group activities, which are always free of charge, also focus specifically on the mother-child relationship, thanks to the presence of childcare areas with expert staff.

    • In Ventimiglia – where we have been working since 2016 to assist migrants and asylum seekers in transit – a growing number of migrant women, often alone and vulnerable, arrive in search of a better future. Many are at risk of becoming victims of trafficking and exploitation along the migration routes. For this reason, together with other organisations, we are calling for more resources, adequate reception facilities and better coordination between agencies to ensure the safety and dignity of women and all people on the move.

    • Promoting and guaranteeing women's rights also means ensuring access to equitable and inclusive education.

    With our national programme Frequenza200, we tackle early school leaving and support the right to education, especially for people living in fragile contexts. Girls are often the most disadvantaged: relegated to care work and discouraged from continuing their studies, they risk seeing their future compromised.

    • We raise awareness of the issue through campaigns...

    Among our campaigns to promote women's rights and tackle violence against women is #UNROSSOALLAVIOLENZA, which we have been running for years together with Lega Serie A. On 25th November, the national campaign aims to combat violence against women in all its forms.

    With our campaign “Ristudiamo il calendario” , launched together with the duo Mammadimerda – an irreverent and ironic project on motherhood founded by Francesca Fiore and Sarah Malnerich – we are calling for a new school timetable. The goal is to guarantee more educational opportunities and tackle summer learning loss (the loss of knowledge and skills that occurs during the long summer break), but also to lighten the burden of care that continues to weigh almost exclusively on mothers, limiting the autonomy and rights of women. Find out more

    • .... and events

    The WeWorld Festival Milan is our annual event which, through talks, art, cinema and photography, sparks debate on fundamental issues such as feminism and women’s rights, consent, language, gender pay gap, motherhood, social and environmental justice, women's empowerment. Find out more

    • Our Chiacchierata Femminista format is a welcoming space where you can be heard without judgement. It’s an informal and safe environment to discuss topics such as women’s rights, gender-based violence, motherhood, sexuality, the gender pay gap, and more—always starting from the value of sharing and listening.

    • We educate on gender equality: we promote courses in schools and work with young people to dismantle stereotypes starting from childhoodAdvocacy and research

      We raise awareness on issues crucial to women's rights — from menstrual justice to gender stereotypes in language, from violence to harassment at work — because we believe that understanding them thoroughly is essential to addressing them effectively. This is why our investigations and the work of the Study Centre are strategic and fuel all our actions.

      We also support women's participation in public life and their leadership in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) roles, promoting inclusive environments free from stereotypes. In this regard, we also collaborate with Italian companies to promote diversity and women's rights. In addition, we participate in sporting events that combine activism and solidarity against gender-based violence.

  • Women's rights around the world: our intervention

    Gender and generational inequalities are more severe in fragile contexts, where economic and humanitarian crises compound and further limit rights and opportunities. Our report Her Future at Risk, which analyses the situation of women and girls in eight countries affected by protracted emergencies, confirms how widespread this gap remains in many parts of the world. Read also Her Future at Risk. Focus Ukraine. The report explores the gendered impact of WASH response in Ukraine. It highlights how the conflict has deepened inequalities and reshaped gender roles and decision-making power. 

    We work in over 20 countries to promote women's rights and ensure they have opportunities for participation, autonomy and security. We do this by adopting a gender-transformative and women's voice-based approach, which goes beyond responding to immediate needs and aims to transform the structures that generate inequality.

    Integrating a gender perspective into every action means working on cultural norms, power relations and everyday practices, creating the conditions for lasting change. Above all, it means amplifying the voices of women and girls so that they can participate, make decisions, exercise their rights and help change the narratives that define gender roles in their communities.

    In Afghanistan, for example, which ranks last in the Child Fund World Index 2024 (formerly the WeWorld Index) with regards to women's rights, we work in rural areas alongside female heads of households, offering tools and opportunities to improve their living conditions in an extremely complex context.

    In Ukraine, where we have been present since the beginning of the conflict, alongside those who have lost everything, we take a gender-transformative approach: we promote equal opportunities and autonomy for women, strengthening their autonomy, dignity and safety in WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services. Actively involving women and girls means ensuring safer services, more accessible schools and more resilient communities.

    In Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, we support grassroots peace-building processes through the active involvement of young people, local communities and, in particular, women. With the Kujenga Amani Pamoja (“Let's build peace together”) project, we promote youth and female participation along the Swahili coast, the border area between the three countries, strengthening the role of women as social leaders, mediators in conflicts and bearers of cohesion and peace. Through art, dialogue and community initiatives, we encourage cultural practices of mutual respect, inclusion and dialogue, offering spaces where differences become resources.

    In this context, a project was created that combines fieldwork with participatory communication: a photography course conducted with young women from local communities, giving them the opportunity to explore and express their perspective on the world.  This process led to Women See Many Things, the photography project presented at Fotografia Europea 2025, with over 180 photographs taken by more than 30 women between the ages of 18 and 35. The images not only reflect the complexity of their lives, but also become a tool for awareness and change, an invitation to challenge stereotypes and assert their place in the world.