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Although promoting a balanced participation of women and men in decision-making is one of the priorities of the Italian politics and despite the remarkable progress to date, women from all social categories are still under-represented in decision-making positions and processes. In most EU Member States national parliaments, less than 25% are females, while in businesses, the situation is even worse. Women are also underrepresented in leadership positions in science and technology related domains. This paper aims to give a representation of women presence in Italian public universities. The purpose of this research is to give e composite indicators able to measure the glass ceiling in high level cultural institutions. Glass ceiling is a vertical phenomenon of gender discrimination which refers to the fact that women are usually underrepresented in upper managerial positions (Macarie and Moldovan, 2012a, p. 84; 2012b). Another famous definition for the glass ceiling is: ‘a well enshrined phenomenon, supported by the invisible, but impenetrable barrier preventing women from reaching managerial positions irrespective of their achievements or merits (The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995a, p. iii; 1995b, p. 4);

Using data obtained by Miur we have produced the Gender balance of Italian public universities considering 3 main areas: Academic staff, administrative staff, students.