Safety rarely shows up in organizational charts, yet it shapes organizational life in visible—and invisible—ways. It influences how people move through cities, how they experience work, and what opportunities they feel able to pursue. When it is addressed primarily as a compliance matter, two things often happen: its impact is underestimated, and its managerial nature gets lost.

The third edition of StrongHer TogetHer brought the topic back where it belongs—into the realm of decision-making—connecting research and organizations around a simple but demanding question: what works, for whom, and with what consequences?

In his opening remarks, Stefano Caselli, Dean of SDA Bocconi School of Management, reaffirmed the School’s role in creating spaces for dialogue that do not stop at broad agreement, but help organizations face what happens beyond the classroom—where decisions take form and their effects become tangible.

A structural issue, not a one-off emergency

Paola Profeta, Pro-Rector for Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability at Bocconi University, framed violence against women as a structural issue cutting across sectors and hierarchies. It comes with real organizational costs: talent loss, constrained career choices, productivity impacts, reputational risk. More importantly, she reframed what “safety” means in practice. It does not end at the office door. It includes commutes, business travel, public spaces, and forms of vulnerability that directly affect people’s ability to work. An integrated approach, in this view, is not a technical add-on—it is part of governance.

Evidence, public spaces, and the responsibility of communication

Introducing the research Street Harassment and the Potential of Technological and Managerial Tools, Francesco Perrini (Associate Dean for Sustainability and Dean’s delegate for DEI, SDA Bocconi) offered a clear starting point: street harassment and insecurity in public spaces remain widespread, and they are still too often treated as outside the organizational field of vision. Yet they shape mobility, choices, and everyday behavior in ways that matter for work and for organizations. Perrini emphasized that evidence is essential to avoid generic responses—and that meaningful progress requires alignment. Universities, companies, and institutions need to move in the same direction if the goal is structural change rather than reactive solutions.

Clio Gressani, Executive Fellow in the Strategy and Operations Area at SDA Bocconi, focused on what makes the topic particularly challenging for decision-makers: results are not automatic, and they vary depending on people’s initial level of perceived safety. The research looks at risk perception in public spaces and highlights stark gender gaps: 78% of women report not feeling safe at night (vs. 31% of men); 84% report experiences of sexual harassment in public places (vs. 24% of men); 83% show signs of anxiety (vs. 55% of men). In this context, exposure to the topic of safety can trigger different responses—greater caution for some, greater reassurance for others—depending on the individual.

One of the more striking findings relates to men. Discussing street harassment appears to loosen the grip of traditional masculinity norms: a greater willingness to acknowledge anxiety even among peers, and a weaker identification with models built around self-reliance, constant toughness, and competition as a defining value.

Another insight spoke directly to HR priorities: a safe workplace site weighs nearly as much as flexibility in the preferences of both women and men.

Roundtable: tools, governance, and what comes next

The roundtable moved from research to practice, asking what changes when safety is treated as an individual responsibility—and what becomes possible when organizations take ownership through processes, policies, and culture. Moderated by Rossella Cappetta (Associate Dean for Corporate & Financial Institutions Executive Custom Programs, SDA Bocconi), the discussion returned to a crucial point: individual tools can increase awareness and defensive behaviors, but they are only meaningful when supported by a coherent organizational framework.

Within this context, Associazione PARI was cited as a model of collaboration among companies choosing to work together on a shared challenge. PARI brings organizations into an inter-company community to share practices, training, and tools, develop a common language, and engage external expertise and organizations working on prevention and support.

For Peter Durante (Chief People Innovation & Transformation Officer, Italgas Group, and Board Member of Associazione PARI), the key milestone is moving “from compliance to governance.” But the focus, he argued, must now shift to scale: protections and solutions cannot rely on corporate initiative alone. Institutions and policymakers need to play a role, because some mechanisms will not hold without enabling frameworks, incentives, and coordination. This is why he pointed to more integrated models connecting companies, anti-violence centers, and psychological support services—testing practical tools and building systems that work beyond isolated cases.

Olimpia Di Venuta (Group Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Mediobanca, and Board Member of Associazione PARI) brought the conversation back to the cultural layer that organizations often overlook: language and stereotypes. Without awareness, policies risk staying on paper; recognizing the early signals—starting from jokes and verbal violence—is part of making prevention real.

From a day-to-day management standpoint, Elena Lodola (Head of Leveraged Finance Italy, BNP Paribas) emphasized the role of “ordinary” tools when they become lived practice. A code of conduct, she argued, works only if it is more than a document—if it shapes behaviors, supports an equitable team climate, and makes reporting and protection channels truly usable.

Amelia Parente (Senior Corporate Vice President Human Resources, Diasorin) insisted on consistency over time. Change does not come from adding initiatives, but from sustained attention and shared responsibility. She captured the work required with a simple image: “It is a set of gestures that becomes a posture.”

An alliance to build - and to keep open

In closing, Perrini returned to the core meaning of StrongHer TogetHer: building alliance. Between women and men, because the effects are also cultural. Between public and private sectors, because some steps require frameworks no single actor can create alone. And between research and organizations, because without evidence and experimentation the risk is to remain trapped in an emergency mindset.

StrongHer TogetHer sits precisely in this space: a continuing dialogue where research and organizations work on the same problem, with the ambition of making safety a recognizable, measurable, and replicable managerial choice.

SDA Bocconi School of Management