ROME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A ceremony at the Quirinale Palace in the Italian capital started the official celebrations of the International Women's Day here on Monday.
While several events were held across the country -- almost all of them in virtual mode, due to anti-COVID rules -- top authorities highlighted the wide impact the pandemic was having on women, and especially on female workers.
"The spread of COVID-19... has hit the weakest and most exposed elements (of the society) the most, and women are among them," President Sergio Mattarella told an audience of female representatives and officials at the Quirinale.
The head of state recalled the recent data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), which indicated that some 1.3 million female workers in the worst affected sectors of the Italian economy would be at risk of unemployment in 2021.
"Women's employment has ... returned to the level of 2016, and well below the 50 percent (of the country's whole workforce) reached in 2019 for the first time," Mattarella explained.
"A major reason is the crisis of the services sector, whose workers are at 85 percent women."
Other data completed the bleak picture of female employment in Italy under the impact of the coronavirus. Some 312,000 women lost their jobs in 2020 compared with 132,000 men, ISTAT stated in early February.
As for female entrepreneurship, a study released by the national Confesercenti business group in view of the International Women's Day estimated that about 4,000 companies led by women disappeared in 2020, or 0.29 percent of total.
This was the first setback registered in six years, since female entrepreneurship had been growing at a faster pace between 2014 and 2019, according to the report.
"The COVID-19 restrictions on social life and on work are mostly weighing on women," Confesercenti's women branch president Anna Maria Crispino noted.
"Without a well-functioning welfare system allowing them to find a balance between family duties and work life, several female entrepreneurs have simply stopped their activities," she added.
Despite strict anti-pandemic restrictions, some authorized sit-ins were held across the country's major cities. Selected groups of women took to the streets of Rome, Turin, Milan, and Venice both to celebrate the day and to demonstrate against gender violence, a major issue here.
In the opening of his address, President Mattarella also drew attention to the incidents of women killed by husbands, partners, or relatives.
"In the first two months of this year, eleven women have been killed by those who should have loved and protected them... and now we have just registered the twelfth."
"Last year, they were 73... this is a shocking phenomenon, which shakes the conscience of our country and stems from a misrepresented idea of love."
Calls to Italy's toll-free number for victims of gender-based violence had a "sharp increase" during the two-month lockdown in spring, ISTAT reported in May.
More specifically, they grew by 73 percent between March 1 and April 16 compared to the same period of 2019.
At a conference broadcast live on the government's website and on social media on Monday, Minister for Family and Equal Opportunities Elena Bonetti announced the launch of a National Strategy for Gender Equality in 2021. Enditem