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Craftsmanship and Gender Equality: A Focus on the Blown Glass Sector

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Craftsmanship is a fulcrum of the Made in Italy’s system and constitutes an invaluable cultural and economic heritage for our country. It is also considered, worldwide, as synonymous of art, quality and uniqueness. In this branch, in fact, the philosophy of “knowing how to do it well” contrasts with mass production, which is often poor in quality of materials and finishes, as well as certainly lacking an artistic and creative dimension. The literature shows that the artisan dimension imposes flexibility and adaptability to particular needs, according to a slower pace of production, as well as shorter production lines at the local level, also making use of local crafts, skills and traditions, incorporating them into regional and national culture and heritage. The objective of our research is to observe how the theme of gender diversity ties within craftsmanship. The study of gender diversity, in a sector historically not always conducive to the inclusion of the female sex, offers, in our opinion, interesting insights with reference to specific concepts such as: reducing inequality, representation, inclusion and combating stereotypes. Subsequently the literature review, we supplemented our theoretical study with empirical research ordered on three levels. In the first step of the empirical analysis, we focused our study on the blown glass sector, thanks to the data provided by the association “AssoVetro” (National Association of Glass Industrialists) as part of “Confindustria”. Our goal is to analyze how, in a sample group of companies, the gender equality is managed, valued and accounted. The other two steps of the empirical research were functional in broadening the context of the study of women's employment in Italian craftsmanship, thanks to the reports given by the CIDA observatory and by the Chambers of the Italian Parliament.

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