Have you ever heard phrases like “Women are everywhere now” or “What we need today are quotas for men”? Probably yes, and yet nothing could be further from the truth. Nowhere in the world has true equality of opportunity between genders been achieved.

Women earn less, receive lower pensions, and are far more likely to interrupt their careers due to unpaid care work, which still falls disproportionately on them. They face barriers in accessing credit, are overrepresented in sectors unfairly deemed non-strategic, and rarely hold top positions in politics or business. The list goes on, and Rinaldi, with her experience as Lecturer in Political Economy and Director of the School of Gender Economics, lays it out with clarity and precision, explaining not only what is happening, but why.

Drawing on data, research, reports, and statistics, as well as key texts in economics and feminist thought, the book offers a rigorous yet accessible analysis of the structural mechanisms that link money, gender, and power. But can things change? The answer is yes and change is necessary. Because the consequences of an unjust system ultimately affect everyone. This book aims to provide concrete tools and solutions, offering a perspective grounded in action and hope. Financial education, redistribution, cooperatives, and mutualism are among the strategies Rinaldi proposes to dismantle the mechanisms and stereotypes that exclude women from decision-making spaces, confine them to traditional roles, and evaluate them according to aesthetic, behavioral, and sexual standards. And if the idea of a world in which everyone has equal opportunities sounds utopian, the author invites us to rethink the term: utopia is not the opposite of realism, but the opposite of resignation.

Do you want to know more about the author and keynote speaker Azzurra Rinaldi?
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