Focus on Women: Women in Top Management

As of December 31, 2024, there were 4,747 women entrepreneurs in the audiovisual sector of cinema and television⁷, equal to 28.7% of the total.

The female share has grown almost imperceptibly compared to 2023. The gender ratio has remained essentially stable, but in the audiovisual sector the male prevalence is higher than average: for every female entrepreneur, there are 2.5 male entrepreneurs, compared to an average ratio of 2.3. This share is mainly due to female capital shareholders (31.0%) and even more to female non-capital shareholders (34.5%), while the value drops dramatically for female business owners (406 in total, where the share of men and women combined is 14.5%).

⁷ The choice of offices mainly involves owners, partners, and shareholders.

Female presence in the audiovisual sector and in the overall market
Year 2024 (% values)

From the sectoral perspective, the presence of women among entrepreneurs in the audiovisual core – production, post-production, distribution, exhibition, and television programming activities – is heterogeneous and varies significantly across sectors.

The highest share of women entrepreneurs is recorded in exhibition activities, where women’s businesses account for 39.3% of the total (812 women out of 2,068 entrepreneurs). Another significant presence is observed in TV programming and broadcasting, with a female share of 31.5% (256 female entrepreneurs out of 812 companies).

Also in the theatrical, video & TV distribution sector, women represent a significant share of 33.0% (164 out of 497 total companies), exceeding the average for the audiovisual sector.

Breakdown of entrepreneurs in the audiovisual core by sectors
Year 2024 (absolute values and %)

Source: Symbola Foundation elaboration on Infocamere data

Conversely, female presence is below average in two other central sectors. In the theatrical, video, & TV production sector, which constitutes the largest segment with over 12,000 businesses, the share of women is only 26.7% (3,222 female entrepreneurs out of 12,051). The percentage of women in post-production activities is even lower, with women representing just 25.7% (293 out of 1,140 companies).

Compared to 2023, the dynamics of entrepreneurship in the core audiovisual supply chain in 2024 show substantial stability, following the growth of the previous year. The gender dynamic is also changing: in 2024, the number of female entrepreneurs grew slightly (+0.1%), while the number of male entrepreneurs decreased slightly (-0.1%), a trend similar to the positive change in 2023, which was clearly in favor of women.

The remarkable liveliness of the theatrical, video and TV post-production sectoris confirmed again this year, remaining the most dynamic in the supply chain (+4.7% in 2024, slowing down from +9.0% in 2023, with more marked growth among women (+7.3%) than men (+3.8%), reversing the trend of the previous year, when men were the driving force (+9.2% against +8.3%).

The TV programming and broadcasting sector alsoshows a negative change in 2024 (-1.1%), interrupting the positive trend of 2023 (+2.4%), with worse figures for women (-2.3%) than for men (-0.5%).

The negative dynamics of 2023 in the film and video distribution sector worsened, with a -10.0% decline in entrepreneurship in 2024 (compared to a 7.2% decline in 2023). The contraction is more pronounced among men (-11.7%), but it also affects women (-6.3%). Overall, the audiovisual supply chain for entrepreneurship shows signs of slowing, with a differentiated picture across sectors and a gender dynamic that remains more favorable to female entrepreneurs, albeit in a context of less thrust than the previous year.

2023/2024 dynamics of entrepreneurs in the audiovisual core by sectors
(% variation)

In 2024, the share of female under-35 entrepreneurs in the audiovisual core stands at 9.7%, slightly down from 9.9% in 2023. However, the figure remains close to that of male under-35 entrepreneurs (10.6%) and to the sector’s overall average (10.3%), signaling the resilience of the female youth component.

Also in 2024, the highest incidence of young female entrepreneurs is observed in theatrical, video & TV post-production activities, where women under 35 reach 15.4%, a slightly lower value than 16.5% in 2023. This is also where the highest overall incidence of under-35s is found (16.7%), testifying to its high appeal to the new generations.

This is followed by theatrical, video, and TV production activities, with a female under-35 share of 11.1%, which is substantially stable compared to the previous year (11.5%) and slightly lower than the male share (11.5%).

Incidence of under-35s among audiovisual entrepreneurs by sectors
Year 2024 (%)

TV programming & broadcasting activities, on the other hand, present an interesting gender specificity: the share of women under 35 (9.4%) is almost double that of men (4.9%), compared to an overall value of 6.3%, and slightly down from 9.5% in 2023.

In the downstream sectors of the audiovisual supply chain, the presence of young women entrepreneurs remains more limited. The theatrical, video, and TV distribution share is 3.0% (compared to 3.9% for men), and the Exhibition share is 3.6%, with values almost aligned between men and women.

As in 2023, the strong concentration of female audiovisual entrepreneurs in Lazio is confirmed in 2024. With over 5,000 women as owners, partners, or shareholders (nearly a third of the national total), Lazio ranks first among Italian regions in both absolute number and percentage incidence (32.4%), followed by Molise (30.3%), Umbria (29.9%), Campania (29.7%) and Puglia (29.4%) – all above the national average.

Compared to 2023, a few interesting dynamics must be mentioned:
• Liguria, which was in fifth place the previous year with 29.3%, dropped to 26.9% in 2024, leaving room for other regions of the South.
• Molise, which in 2023 was in eighth place with 27.3%, has recorded a significant increase, exceeding 30%.
• Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto remain the regions with the lowest incidence of female entrepreneurs in the sector (20.5% and 21.9% respectively), confirming the 2023 figure.

In absolute terms, in addition to Lazio, the regions with the highest number of female entrepreneurs are Lombardy (2,651), Campania (1,275), Emilia-Romagna (1,049), Tuscany (924) and Puglia (905), testifying to a distribution that, although Lazio is clearly in the lead, involves other large regions of the Centre-North and the South significantly.

Breakdown of women entrepreneurs in the audiovisual sector by Italian regions
Year 2024 (%)

Source: Symbola Foundation elaboration on Infocamere data