“I am a fantasy lady. After my maternity leave I found out my office had been given to someone else »- Corriere.it

Captains? The first example of a captain I had in the family: She was my mother Pioneering entrepreneurMany years ago he opened the first jeans factory in Calabria ».

Maria Pia Amirati has been the director of Rai Fiction for over two years: “But in this field I am not a pioneer—she is careful to explain—because I preceded in this role the excellent Tini Andretta, another captain: the first woman in charge of the hull.”

Haikal deals with the production of TV Series, TV Movies and Documentaries. hard work?
«Certainly complex, because it is not only about the complexity of administrative relations and industrial systems within a large public service company, but above all it is based on contents, and therefore on creativity».

Are women more or less capable than men in such a multifaceted task?
“Women, in general, have a greater ability to be inclusive, they are more sympathetic, more attentive to others, because they have the gift of knowing how to listen. A quality that, in my opinion, depends on family relationships: from childhood, then as wives and mothers, we are accustomed to weaving relationships Coexistence, playing the role of mediator when disagreements arise. For thousands of years we have been placed on the social margins, obedient, subject to the yoke of patriarchy, to male authority … For this reason, we are more open to new things, to accept difficult challenges ».

Have you experienced gender discrimination compared to colleagues?
“The most important issue today in terms of discrimination against women It is the difference in pay. With some delay, I realized that, for the same work, women are paid less than men. I also felt punished when I decided to become a mother: At the time I thought I was a stable person, had a job role and could afford the luxury of stepping away from the office for a few months for maternity leave. When I returned after my son was born, I found out that my room had been given to someone else: I had been vacated. you bothered me. Like, years ago, I was so upset by yet another surreal episode.”

What happened?
It was in the early nineties, and I was not yet in charge, and one of my chiefs, who was about to retire, told me: I commend you my desk and chair, which are better than the two you have available. I thanked him and put the furniture back in my room. But one morning, upon arriving at the office, I found a boy taking them away, to take them to another place. I asked him for clarifications, and he replied firmly: Higher orders. A little later, I discovered an informant, an official who did not appreciate the confiscation of this furniture on my part, since it belonged to a manager. In practice, I usurped a place that did not belong to me.

How did it end?
“I am planted. I wrote a dirty letter to my direct boss, explaining that he offered me the office and the chair, so I announced my resignation to him.”

So brave!
«I was too young and too aggressive… In the end, I was persuaded to withdraw my resignation: I took back my furniture as a programmer, and they took back the furniture of a retired CEO. I am sure that if I were a man it would not have happened. An episode that also taught me a lot about company dynamics and that makes me smile remotely.”

Among the various roles, you were also the chairperson of the Rai Equal Opportunities Commission…
«Yes, and in this area there is still a lot of work to be done. We aspire to equality between the sexes, but rights are never established and we must always fight: let us bear this in mind, never letting our guard down that, in times of crisis, the weakest groups are always women.”

Have you ever been harassed at the company?
“Like many others, I had the inevitable annoying suitors… Yes, it happened to me many years ago: Older colleagues also told me rougher stories… When it happened to me, I kept them at bay. Unfortunately, as President of Equal Opportunity, it happened. That some young men came to tell me about it harassment have suffered them: I have always helped them, with great care, because the danger lies in putting the victims in trouble… There is always someone ready to comment wryly on the offense, saying: I was harassed because she left to seek. Despite this, she always pushed the girls to report, to take courage. Recently, however, the company breathes a different atmosphere, as a result of the female awakening yes, but also as a result of the cultural growth of the man ».

As director of Rai Fiction, you give more space to women’s stories…
«I feel somewhat important, because also in recent years the number of Italian women writers has increased and we see more and more screenwriters than screenwriters. Our projects often feature female characters in writing as well.”

His most recent novel, An Ordinary Life of a Woman in the Street, has the protagonist as a prostitute. Why this choice?
“I always thought of the female body in my novels: the suffering and the pain that crosses the larger female universe. This time I wanted to face a world that did not belong to my social sphere. When I saw girls selling themselves on the street, I asked myself: What makes them different from me? In what circumstances of poverty and exclusion would they have agreed to become prostitutes? Then I decided to meet some of them, to understand what happens in this state of the human environment: I met some of them who told me what it meant to become a sexual slave. Fortunately, these girls came out of hell and were taken in by institutes or religious associations.”

How do you judge little girls who undress? On OnlyFans?
I say this at the risk of sounding moral: I think it is a great mistake. The body contains its own sacredness, made up of intimacy and identity, that must not be violated. Some women think that they do it out of rebellion, to break taboos, but by displaying themselves boldly, by stripping naked, they risk objectifying themselves ».

Looking back at her entrepreneurial mother, a woman really can be of captains?
“They are certainly more diligent about preparing for the world of work: they nerd, study more, put more passion into it and graduate in greater numbers than their peers. By this I do not want to say that men are devoid of virtues… The war between the sexes frankly disturbs me, and I often find wonderful teachers and attentive companions in men.

Isn’t she even tied to the “chair” of her strength?
«I will return to my mother for the last time: she was a wonderful woman of strength and energy, she suffered physically and mentally, she had four daughters and today she has Alzheimer’s disease, what more can I say? To have strength you must have plenty of time to think only about it and now I have evidence that everything passes, everything ends, even the most beautiful things. I dedicate my time to do better but above all to young and passionate colleagues and colleagues to whom I convey something good … certainly not a thirst for power ».