Last Sunday of Milan Fashion Week spring/summer 2024, executives from across the luxury industry took part in a discussion on ‘Gender Equity and the Next Generation of Talent in Luxury’ at the Bulgari Hotel in the heart of Milan.
Laura Burdese, marketing and communication vice president of Bulgari, Imran Amed, founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion, and Gemma D’Auria, senior partner at McKinsey & Co., at the BoF x Bulgari executive roundtable on ‘Gender Equity and the Next Generation of Talent in Luxury’ at the Bulgari Hotel during Milan Fashion Week.
The LVMH-owned Bulgari seeks to champion female empowerment internally, with 62 percent of its global managerial positions held by women at Bulgari. The wider LVMH Group achieved a Gender Equality Index score of 91.8/100 in France in 2022 — a score based on an assessment of wage gaps, pay rise differences, promotion discrepancies, the percentage of employees given a pay rise on returning from maternity leave and the number of women in the top 10 highest-paying jobs.
The conversation was supported by insights from Gemma D’Auria, senior partner at McKinsey & Co., who shared insights and call-to-actions from the firm’s work on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the industry. Italy has created a Gender Equality Certification System, finalized in 2022 as a part of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan, which aims to ensure greater participation of women in the labour market, promote transparency and improve women’s working conditions. Gucci was the first Italian luxury house to receive this certification.
A disproportionately female workforce at entry level peters out further up the corporate ladder. In the US and Europe, almost two-thirds of the incoming employees in apparel, fashion, and luxury are women, according to McKinsey. However, women only represent 31 percent of executives in Europe and 35 percent in the US. Out of all women executives, only 12 percent in Europe and 9 percent in the US have Profit and Loss responsibilities.
Male candidates still made up nearly 77 percent of all CEO appointments in the fashion and luxury industry in 2021, according to BoF and McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2023. This can have detrimental effects on younger generations looking to leadership for support, sponsorship, and often, inspiration.
More than six in 10 Gen-Z are actively or passively looking for other jobs because they want better pay, work-life balance, or career and growth opportunities. Women, especially, are driving this, with almost 30 percent of Gen-Z women citing better advancement and growth opportunities as a reason to leave a job, compared with 22 percent of men.
There is a conflict between how swiftly the industry is changing and the desire for change, such that it is tempting for businesses to opt for solutions whose benefits have a short shelf life. Almost everyone is incentivized to make a quick move because we need to get stuff done tomorrow. And I see constantly that that is one of the biggest hindrances to recruiting differently and cultivating change.
Mentors and sponsors serve similar functions in nurturing talent in the workplace. But while a mentor guides a less-experienced individual, sponsors actively promote growth, provide access to opportunities at work, and advocate for the career advancement of a less-experienced individual. Women are generally over-mentored and under-sponsored. Over-mentored means everybody wants to give us advice.
Women fashion leaders demand gender equality at the Milan Fashion Show
