Enhancement of professional skills to address gender differences at Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'energia e l'ambiente (ENEA).

PIP: ENEA, Italy's national agency charged with research and development in the areas of technology, energy, and the environment, has 3800 employees. Of these, 25% are women, and nearly 50% are researchers (15% women). However, only 2 of 43 top management positions are filled by women, and only 1 of 100 high-level managers is a woman. In addition, women reach the top level of their career an average of 3 years later than men. Studies conducted to uncover the reasons for this sex discrimination and to discern the influence of gender on careers revealed that many changes were required that depended upon matching changes in ENEA's organization and management systems, which could be brought about by communication, diffused leadership, empowerment, and mainstreaming women into the decision-making process. The research has resulted in creation of a prototype management project that will be tested on a sample of approximately 250 employees and will seek to balance the number of women and men at all levels. After this experiment has been conducted, educational efforts will be made to restructure the basic ways ENEA functions.^ieng