Gender-based violence: what can companies do to fight it?

«Companies play a crucial role in society: they are not just economic actors but communities of people where everyone leaves a mark, even on the outside, making the values ​​that the company itself promotes their own». Fabrizio Rutschmann, Chief People and Corporate Services Officer of Snam and co-promoter of the network of eight companies, spoke about the genesis and meaning of the Pari project. Together against gender violence. «We can make a significant contribution in combating phenomena still present in society, such as gender violence: we aim for concrete actions that keep attention on the topic high and contribute to the cultural change that we all feel the need for».

The Pari project aims to develop a new model of companies that discuss these issues and a common sensitivity to respond to gender violence, in the world of work but not only. Together with Snam, other companies of primary importance such as AstraZeneca and Alexion, ATM, Fastweb, Generali Italia, Gruppo Feltrinelli, Kering Foundation, Prysmian and Trenord, have created an analysis and dissemination project, with the coordination of Feltrinelli Education, which combines a broad network to define a series of concrete actions to create a culture against gender violence, within companies and in civil society.

The initiative, which also counts on the patronage of Valore D, includes an intense program of activities that will materialize in the coming months: field research, the creation of working groups between various companies with the aim of developing concrete proposals and the development of a manifesto that summarizes its principles and objectives.

Fabrizio Rutschmann explains further: «The idea of ​​Pari was born last November after yet another case of feminicide, that of Giulia Cecchetin….For the first time, also thanks to the positions taken by her sister Elena, everywhere there was talk of the fact that feminicides cannot be considered isolated cases. Gender violence was spoken of as a phenomenon that has to do with culture and education, which we all share, and which for this reason we all have the responsibility to combat.”

Three work tables they will directly involve the organizations in the network to define concrete actions to take inside and outside the companies. «Together with Jointly and experts on the topic, already before the summer, we started an investigation that will end in October aimed both inside and outside the network’s organizations, to try to give a framework of the dimension of the phenomenon of gender violence within the workplace and beyond: from the contrast and support policies that are already implemented to the perception of the phenomenon, especially among different generations”.

The reflections, ideas, data and actions to be carried out will become, with the support of Feltrinelli, an editorial product, dissemination and education tool that can circulate between organizations and companies, to ensure that all these activities can become “seeds capable of transforming into something bigger also thanks to the support of other realities and organizations that want to join us in this cultural challenge.”