Josefa Idem is not easily rattled. An international canoeist who won an Olympic gold and five world championships, she knows what it is like to face a daunting challenge.

But, after taking a call from Italy's new prime minister, Enrico Letta, asking her to be a member of his cabinet, she told her followers on Twitter: "My hands were shaking". The German-born Idem, 48, who took Italian nationality after marrying her coach, entered politics 12 years ago and was elected to the senate for Letta's Democratic party (PD) in February's general election. She is one of seven women in Letta's 22-member cabinet – the highest proportion in an Italian government.

The new left-right coalition, which began work on Tuesday after surviving the second of two votes of confidence in parliament, has completed a revolution in the status of women in Italian politics that began with the previous government of the former EU commissioner, Mario Monti. Before that, women were central to Italian politics but not in a way that did much to advance their cause.

Arguably the most important woman in the closing months of Silvio Berlusconi's 2008-11 government was Karima el-Mahroug, otherwise known as "Ruby the Heartstealer", the Moroccan teenage runaway whose friendship with the septuagenarian former prime minister contributed to his departure from office. Berlusconi also appointed women to his cabinet. But one was a former showgirl and glamour model while another had a habit of appearing on TV chat shows wearing hold-up stockings under a microskirt.

"In Berlusconi's governments, women were selected very much on the basis of – how can I say this? – their personal, external characteristics," said Natalia Augias, a political correspondent for the state-owned RAI television network. "Letta has chosen his women ministers for their competence alone."

Two of the four most important jobs in the government have gone to women: Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner, takes over the foreign ministry, while Anna Maria Cancellieri, who served as interior minister under Monti, has been given the even more sensitive justice portfolio. How Cancellieri deals with the challenges of her job could decide the fate of the government. It depends for its survival on the backing of Berlusconi who is a defendant in four trials in which he claims his indictments were arranged by politically motivated, crypto-Marxist prosecutors.

A third woman, Maria Chiara Carrozza from the PD, a scientist and academic, will be in charge of education, one of the biggest-spending departments. The others have more junior posts: two of Berlusconi's lawmakers have been given health and agriculture, ministries whose responsibilities have been largely transferred to the regional administrations and the EU commission respectively. Idem has responsibility for sport, youth and equal opportunity. And another foreign-born PD politician, Cécile Kyenge, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is minister for integration.

Her appointment prompted fierce criticism from the anti-immigrant Northern League and a storm of vituperative abuse on the web, some of it obscene. In an early indication of what the presence of so many women in government could mean, Idem has ordered Italy's anti-discrimination watchdog to look into whether action could be taken against those responsible for the racist slurs against Kyenge. She offered her backing to her colleague "above all as a woman".

"Letta," said Augias, "is much more international than 90% of our politicians – he's keenly aware of what other democratic leaders are doing around the world." The prime minister is also very much a "new man": his wife is a successful journalist who edits the Rome supplement of the Corriere della Sera, and when Letta was called to the presidential palace to be asked to form a new government, he turned up in the family car with the baby seats still attached in the back.

The appointment of so many women to positions of power is also a reflection of the greater numbers in the new parliament. According to a study by the Inter Parliamentary Union, until the last election, the share of women in the Italian legislature was substantially lower than that in Afghanistan's.

What Italians – without a trace of irony – term la quota rosa (the pink proportion) shot up after the election from 20% to 31%. An important reason for this has been the pressure exerted by Beppe Grillo's maverick Five Star movement (M5S) which selected its candidates online. Of the 163 lawmakers elected for the M5S, 38% are female.

But there is still a way to go for the old attitudes in Italy die out. Berlusconi made a point of kissing the hand of Nunzia De Girolamo, the new agriculture minister and at 37 the youngest member of the government. One newspaper drew attention to her "chestnut hair and dark eyes". But then that was Bild Zeitung.