Data storytelling (and TV series): When Data Reveal the Story of Gender Equality

Hello! We are I MILLE and this is our newsletter. We call it Forward because we strive to look ahead (and also because if you enjoy what we write, you can always forward it to someone you like).

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I’m Francesca Brioschi, Content Designer at I MILLE, and I’m responsible for creating editorial content that uses data to tell stories. This specific story emerged from a conversation with colleagues on I MILLE’s Gender Equality Committee and centers on women and their participation in the workforce. However, it’s relevant to all of us, because gender equality affects each and every one of us.

Let’s Talk Numbers

In June 2024, I MILLE earned the UNI/PdR 125:2022 Certification on Gender Equality. This certification is awarded to companies that implement policies and practices aimed at promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.

After almost a year, we can confidently say that this certification represents our first milestone on an ever-evolving path, one rooted in a fundamental question. What is our perception of gender issues?

Where do we feel equality of rights in the workplace? How do we perceive pay transparency, career progression and work-life balance? How does gender inequality affect us and how would we rate these experiences on a value scale?

Too many questions at once? Sorry!

There Is No Justice Without…Data Storytelling

A premise: “There is no justice without data”.

This assertion comes from Donata Columbro, a journalist and data humanist who makes numbers accessible and understandable. Her work articulates and interprets the concept of Data Feminism, theorized by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein, which encourages us to re-examine data with an eye to power dynamics.

Because data can be a tool of power, we must align ourselves with them through a narrative based on intersectional feminism, a kind of feminist data “storytelling” that includes all categories of women.

“In a sense, oppression and discrimination don’t act independently, but are interconnected.”
– Donata Columbro

Gender equality always underscores intersection and the interconnection of perceptions, statistical data, and social categories, aiming for unity rather than severance. Severance… remember this word, because we’ll come back to it soon. (apologies in advance for the detour!)

An Italian Overview

To understand the employment numbers for women in Italy, INPS’s Gender Report 2024 provides the following snapshot:

• Women’s employment rate: 52.5% (versus 70.4% for men)
• Among employed women, 64.4% work part-time, and 15.6% of them do so involuntarily (they couldn’t find full-time opportunities)
• Permanent hires for women: 36.9% (versus 63.1% for men)
• Among permanent contracts, only 21.1% of women hold managerial positions (versus 78.9% for men)

These figures reveal that women often face fragmented career paths, turn to part-time work to balance professional and personal life and struggle to advance professionally. This is evident in the pay gap, especially at executive levels.

And now we return to that TV series we mentioned at the start, along with that little word we asked you to keep in mind. If it still sounds cryptic, things will soon become clearer!

Indivisible: The Split Paradox

Are you familiar with Severance? It’s a gripping Apple TV+ dystopian thriller series, produced and partly directed by Ben Stiller, which introduces a radical experiment: surgically separating one’s work identity from one’s personal identity.

Spoiler alert ahead—sorry!

When I began writing this newsletter, scenes from Lumon, the huge corporation in the series, sprang to mind. In these sterile, monochromatic offices, employees sit at their desks in front of dated computers, spending their days dragging numbers into digital boxes with no apparent logic and simply following a gut feeling.

Numbers upon numbers until your head spins. But then, the moment employees clock out, they forget everything that happened at work. This seemingly perfect “work-life balance” turns out to be a disturbing dystopia, which resonates deeply with women’s current reality, where a genuine split is impossible.

Unlike the characters in Severance, women in real life cannot simply “switch off” the mental load when the workday ends. They can’t dismiss the family obligations and concerns waiting for them. 

This means they have a dual, indivisible identity: they’re expected to excel professionally and be primary caregivers, all at once.

While the series illustrates the horror of a fragmented self, our reality uncovers the unsustainability of a self that is always overburdened.

Is It a Matter of Time?

It almost seems like women’s sense of time is distorted, expanded beyond what’s realistically possible. The “split” we see in the series manifests in real life through data as well. According to the International Labour Organization, in Italy, 75% of unpaid care work is performed by women.

After a full day on the job—the moment our severed protagonists would supposedly leave their work identities behind—women actually embark on another shift.

They’re responsible for household tasks and family management. This burden is amplified in smart working situations, which, while effective for flexibility, can end up merging professional tasks with household obligations. That accumulated physical and mental load is a primary reason why 1 in 5 women stop working after the birth of their first child, especially in the absence of adequate support systems (source: “Le equilibriste, la maternità in Italia” 2024 report by Save The Children).

So, is it all about time? In a way, yes. Time is required to do everything. But it will also take 134 years to close the global gender gap, at least according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024. That milestone isn’t about a more efficient individual time management strategy; it’s about socially acknowledging the interconnectedness of professional and personal spheres, with equal sharing of responsibilities.

While we wait those 134 years, what can we do right now? For starters, we can stop apologizing so much.

Excusatio Non Petita…

Those who apologize needlessly end up blaming themselves. At least, that’s what a well-known Latin proverb suggests. Yet women persist in apologizing. Why? We compose emails and work messages brimming with emojis or exclamation points, a formula for “playing nice” with our recipients. We’ve done it in this newsletter too, admittedly in an exaggerated way. But we truly believe that avoiding needless apologies might be one small step toward real change.

“Women, to avoid appearing pushy in written communications, tend to apologize, even for things that don’t warrant any apology.”
– Hannah Salton

In that spirit, the Committee and I offer an advance apology if this text inspires you never to apologize again.

So, what can we do every day to encourage a more equitable work environment?

1. Communicate directly, as data does.
2. Push for equitable distribution of responsibilities in the workplace, applying an intersectional lens to data, as recommended by data feminism.
3. Raise awareness by joining or hosting training and discussion sessions. At a recent I MILLE Welcomes event with Chiara Tagliaferri and Matteo B. Bianchi, we explored how gendered perspectives emerge in podcasting. This spotlight on narrative dynamics sparked a critical conversation on representation and storytelling.

By combining our skills and sense of collective responsibility, we can build a work environment that accommodates us all, a place we continue to carry with us beyond office walls, as a shared foundation of humanity.

Because equality is not a boundary. It’s a horizon that expands every time we choose to look at it together.