Career and family? You can do it all
“I am a Rector, I have four children, two of whom were born in Guatemala during my years there as a researcher and volunteer. To the new generations I say, dare yourself, I tell young women not to be afraid to aspire to professional fulfilment and having a family too. Everything is possible.”
Reading the résumé of Sabina Nuti, Rector of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, serving from 2019 to 2025, what’s striking is the number of projects and programs she’s been involved in as a teacher and researcher. “I’ve always been a dynamic person,” she says. “I was a scout leader, I loved to study and I was interested so much about the world. After graduating in political science in Pisa, I decided to continue my education. I remember applying for a joint PhD position with the London School of Economics, but the committee was taking forever to convene. And since I had finished my undergrad degree right on schedule, I was really chomping at the bit as I waited to hear. So I also decided to apply for an MBA scholarship at Bocconi, financed by AIDDA, an Italian association for women business leaders.”
Around the same time, in 1984, I found out that I had been accepted for both programs, but by then in my heart I already been made my choice: I enrolled in the Master’s in Business Management at Bocconi. I think there were only five of us women out of over 50 participants. And I was one of the youngest. It was challenging because the environment was very competitive, there was so much math, and I had to do well to keep the scholarship.”
In fact, Nuti did so well that after completing her MBA, she joined Bocconi University as a teaching and research fellow. Then she decided to spend two years as a volunteer in Guatemala. “An incredible experience, I went as a volunteer for international cooperation with the Institute for University Cooperation: I assisted the Central America Coordination Unit of the Italian Embassy in managing NGO projects. And in the meantime, I became a mother of two children. Two more were born after I returned to Italy. My husband and my children give me my strength.”
Nuti has always had a positive role model in her life: her mother was a plant geneticist, and together with her father, a university professor, they raised five children and taught them to believe in themselves and their abilities, while setting an example of, cooperation and mutual respect.
Nuti stayed in Milan until 2000 as a lecturer in business management, planning and control at SDA Bocconi School of Management and as an adjunct professor for the university. She then joined the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna as an associate professor, specializing in health care. She eventually became full professor and, for a time, visiting professor of Health Management at the University of Toronto. During these years, Nuti founded the Management and Healthcare Laboratory (known as MES in Italian) and became the scientific director of the Performance Evaluation System for the healthcare networks in a number of Italian regions. She is also considered a European expert on health care. Then came the rectorate.
“I think,” she stresses, “that there are still too few women rectors in Italy, and I would like to see more women candidates. I am convinced that it’s the fear of having to give up family and motherhood which makes women less inclined to apply for leadership positions in institutions and organizations. ”Whatever the field, it’s often young women who hold themselves back,” says the rector. “They’re afraid they won’t be able to mix work with family. Well, what I say to them is, dive in, break stereotypes without fear, without ever sacrificing the balance between work and family.”
