What Are The Characteristics Of Women From Italy?

Many European nations have gradually transitioned away from the traditional family structure. The husband is the primary breadwinner, and the wife is the head of the house and its management. However, this trend has been somewhat slower than in other cultures, and as a result, many Italian women still take on a slightly traditional role as the head of the house. When coupled with their overall determination and confidence, this ensures that an Italian household is often run like clockwork, with many Italian women putting in a great deal of effort to keep things efficient and well-managed. However, Italian women are still also beginning to enter the workplace on a much more regular basis, which leaves many Italian women trying to juggle work and the house – a challenge to anyone. With this in mind, when dating Italian women, it’s recommended to try and help out with the place subtly where you can – but, depending on her upbringing, she may turn down help (no matter how much she needs it) if you ask.

Most Italian families have just one child, but this is only barely the case; indeed, over 4 million Italian households have just one child, while 3.6 million have two children, and 900,000 have three children or more. This differs from many other European countries, where the trend towards smaller families with fewer children has increased rapidly. However, it seems likely that this trend may be accelerating since the birth rates in Italy are falling rapidly. In 2020, the number of children per Italian woman was just 1.24, representing a substantial decrease from previous generations. As such, when dating younger Italian women, you may want to be prepared that they should be far less inclined to start a family than in other cultures. However, this may depend on where you look since there are significant skews in the data based on an Italian woman’s location. For example, alongside the Austrian border, the average was far higher at 1.71; however, in Sardinia, Italian women had fewer than one child per woman – some of the lowest figures anywhere globally. Therefore, if you have been looking to date an Italian woman and have a pre-conceived idea of how many children you might like to have one day (if any), you may want to start your search in a particular region.

Regarding upbringings, Italian women are often pushed (along with men) to become strong and independent quickly, with unwavering pride and passion. This is likely a throwback to the country’s exceptionally proud past; however, it is well worth considering that Italian women are often also expected to stay in a house-making role. While this does not necessarily mean that Italian girls and young women will be excellent cooks in every scenario, most are their parents and grandparents teaching them fundamental skills to help them become good cooks. Food is massively essential in Italian culture, with families putting a tremendous amount of effort into making a delicious and nutritious meal; as such, the importance of learning to cook well is often highly pressured for Italian women. However, Italian women are also very caring and compassionate. While she may be confident and determined, she will likely also do her best to ensure everyone in the household is happy and content, often looking out for others in the family before themselves.

Education in Italy is vital and is available for free for all students from the age of six years; the Italian public school system is provided with an annual budget of €65 billion and was initially introduced in 1859. This makes the Italian system one of the oldest and most well-established free public education systems globally. However, it was sorely required at the time. Even following its early implementation, literacy rates and school attendance still took around fifty years to improve for young Italians. It took seventy years for 90% of Italian children to become enrolled in school, which wasn’t until around the outbreak of the Second World War. Since then however, education in Italy has rapidly improved since, and now, the national literacy level is predicted to be 99.2%. However, scientific achievements among Italian students have been falling, with the number of poor performers in science increasing gradually. As such, if science is an important skill, in your opinion, and you decide to date an Italian woman, it may be worth considering her stance. In addition, you may want to spend a little more time with any future children to ensure they share your passion for science. Instead, many Italian women and men have a preference and focus on the arts.

The Italian education system aligns with most other European countries’ educational structures. Teaching is divided into five stages for students. First, students attend kindergarten until the age of six, which begins compulsory education. Then, primary and lower secondary schools follow, and upper secondary schools conclude free compulsory education. After that, higher education is an optional extra for students looking to further their knowledge, and many state-run institutions provide affordable higher education and training. In addition, Italy is also one of the most historical countries for higher education in Europe and globally, owing to its early history as a significant global power. So, the country is home to many of the oldest institutions worldwide, including the University of Bologna, the oldest surviving university globally and dates back to 1088 (putting it at 934 years old, approximately).

Outside of education, employment in Italy is climbing gradually. With this in mind, around 59.6% of Italian women and men, as a whole, are employed. The unemployment rate in Italy falls at 8.60%, while the average annual wage growth is around 0.60%. Meanwhile, the yearly income typically varies by region. Still, the highest gross yearly salaries were in Lombardy, with an average of €31,400 per year, compared to southern areas receiving around €24,400 per year – accounting for approximately €7,000 per year on average. However, there is a substantial wage gap between Italian women and men; on average, the annual income for men is around 25% higher than for Italian women and might be as much as a 28% difference for industries such as the insurance sector jobs. As such, you may need to be prepared to contribute proportionally more to the household income, on average, when dating Italian women.

Globally, Italy is well known for being one of the leading countries for religion, namely Christianity, owing to the country’s rich and diverse history as one of the founding members of Catholicism, with Christianity in the Italian Peninsula going as far back as the first century AD. Moreover, the international headquarters for Catholicism is still in Italy to this day. Indeed, the Pope of Catholicism resides in Italy and is considered the Bishop of Rome. The current Pope is Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio), the third non-Italian Pope, previously the Archbishop of Buenos Aires between 1998 and his installation. With this rich and incredibly long-standing history of Catholicism and Italy’s continual presence as one of the leading countries for Catholicism globally, it’s perhaps no surprise that Christianity is undeniably the single most prominent and common faith within Italy. Moreover, with many other Catholic religious orders also having their headquarters in Rome, this further increases the appeal of Christianity in Italy.

For Italian women and men approximately 83.3% of all Italian women and men are Christian, with the single most significant proportion of these individuals following Catholic Christianity; however, a smaller number of Italian women and men follow other forms of Christianity. Indeed, Freedom of Religion is available within Italy, and the country has recognized many different religions alongside Catholicism. However, despite offering Freedom of Religion to Italian women and men, the Constitution of Italy still declares the Catholic Church as independent and sovereign. Nevertheless, all religions have the right to self-organization, so long as the religion’s statutes do not contradict Italian laws; this has allowed many non-Christian and non-Catholic religions to establish in Italy. Over time, their populations are slowly growing. Some of the most recent signatures with the Italian government for religion include the Apostolic Church in Italy in 2007 and 2012, the Italian Buddhist Union and Hindu Unions in 2007 and 2012, and the Soka Gakkai Italian Buddhist Institute in 2015/2016. Nevertheless, considering Italy’s strong connections to Catholicism and Christianity, it still seems unlikely that the main distribution of religion within Italy will change substantially anytime soon.

The following most significant proportion of the population considered themselves unaffiliated with any religion at 12.4%. Other faiths within the country amount to a deficient number of people. Islam is shared by approximately 3.7% of the population. Finally, making up the final 0.6%, Buddhism accounts for 0.2% of the people, Hinduism at 0.1%, and other religions for the last 0.3% of the population. The primary source of religious minorities in Italy is immigration into the country. Indeed, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and the like were among the most significant contributors to the country’s immigrant population. In contrast, most immigrants are still Christian. This is only marginal at 53.8% of immigrants into Italy. The remaining 32.2% of religious followers immigrating to Italy held other minority religions, contributing to the country’s minority religion population. Furthermore, one of the fastest-growing denominations in Italy is the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which now make up approximately 420,000 members.

Historically, women’s rights in Italy have suffered and experienced several setbacks. Italian women were typically seen as housewives or mothers, especially during World War II. As a result, many Italian women who were getting the chance to experience early equality were forced back into the role of mother or housewife. Unfortunately, this did not begin to change until after the war. However, women received more equality and the right to vote from then. This was the first of many pieces of legislation which saw women empowered. During the 1970s, further empowerment of women was introduced, such as the right to abortion and divorce. In modern Italy, women have the same rights as men and are seen to have equal educational and business opportunities, which ensures that many Italian women are proud, determined, and confident. However, this also means that Italian women may be incredibly strong-willed and sometimes may be challenging to read. So, you may need to put in a lot of effort to woo an Italian woman.

Though equality has been reached in Italy, this doesn’t necessarily change Italian women’s traditional roles, and many Italian women still value their position in the family. Italian women are often highly caring and passionate but also strong emotionally and physically. As a result, Italian women are often knowledgeable and hard-working, which undoubtedly contributes to why so many consider Italian women excellent partners or wives due to their hard-working nature and high personal standards for achievement. Furthermore, many Italian women passionately love food and cooking and will often take pride in hosting guests. One of the standout features of Italian women is that they always go to an immense effort to make themselves look good. Often, Italian women pride themselves on looking their best and generally prioritize skin care and good health over makeup. This is common across the continent, as with French women, but is equally valid with Italian women.

Almost across the board, Italian women are incredibly determined, confident, and steadfast in their beliefs and goals. As a result of this determination to achieve individual goals, many Italian women are also secure and bold. Generally, Italian women are powerful characters who bring life and soul to the party (as well as get jaw-dropping looks, of course). It’s perhaps not overly surprising due to the strong family upbringing that many Italian women experience. From a young age, Italian women usually support the family and, as such, learn many essential skills passed from generation to generation, giving them confidence in their abilities. These include skills such as cooking and self-care. This confidence is rarer in many western cultures; Italian women are typically not shy or reserved. As such, when dating an Italian woman, you should be prepared for the fact that they often like to be chased after, as they know their value and worth well; however, you’ll also need to be prepared to put a lot of effort and time in to get to know her.