Women are not new to Italian politics – Silvio Berlusconi was famous for appointing models and actresses to cabinet, including a former topless model as minister for equal opportunities.

But there is, thankfully, something fundamentally different going on here: one third of cabinet members are women. And they are, as the expression goes, women of substance.

The question on everyone's lips is whether this a breakthrough or, as some argue, no more than a headline case of tokenism? Only time will tell whether this turns out to be a breakthrough – whether this changes fundamentally the way in which politics is done, or the manner in which issues in which women might have a particular stake (workplace reforms, childcare and equal pay) are tackled in Italian and, by extension, European politics.

But, in any case, theword tokenism is overly cynical and defeatist. Symbolism, which is what this is, needn't be tokenistic. It can be extremely powerful. Here this is the case in two ways. First, because Italy's new cabinet reflects the government's explicit acknowledgment that only a visible break with Italy's geriatric and sexist politics might alleviate the public's repulsion toward a coalition government that includes an element of Berlusconism (the deputy PM and the minister of the interior) – an obvious response to demands for change that should not be so easily dismissed.

Second, accusations of tokenism generally stem from the notion that this can easily be rolled back – a government reshuffle could easily wipe out these gains. But politics (even in Italian ones) work in ratchet effects: there may be occasional backlashes, but it is difficult to 'roll back'. Because changes – however symbolic – in such powerful institutions as cabinets change norms and by consequence public expectations: institutions start to look different and we can't remember a time when they looked otherwise. Fits and starts there may be, but rolling back is generally less of an option.

Fears of tokenism need to be put in context: Looking across Europe today, these fits and starts are obvious: Blair's Babes, the French PM's Alain Juppé's 'Jupettes' (literally, 'little skirts'), the comments around Rachida Dati under Sarkozy, and the lone Theresa May are all illustrations of progress' uneven march. And even as late as last year, the number of women in François Hollande's (enormous) government was the subject of comments. France is a good illustration of the web of tensions and paradoxes around the issue—and explains why we are so loathe to take what has happened in Italy at face value.

Though it took the parity law, passed in 2000, to improve the representation of women in the national assembly somewhat, the number of women in cabinets in France has often been proportionally higher than in the assembly.

But do these women have power? There were fewer women in Sarkozy's government but they had key posts. On the other hand – because the French president can appoint ministers from outside the assembly – these appointments were often seen as patronage. Not to mention weak since, parachuted as some were, many of the women in question seldom had the necessary political power base to remain in post for very long.

The combination of weaker posts and shorter stints conspires to give the impression of tokenism, but the fact is that over time it has become unacceptable not to have a significant number of women in cabinet.

You have to travel much further north of course (Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden) to find women in key posts for very long. In Norway, justice, and petroleum and energy are posts held by women; in Sweden, defence, justice and EU affairs are all in the hands of women; the picture is similar in Denmark and Finland.

What the Nordics have in common is an early adoption by the larger parties of quota systems. Everywhere quotas were met with resistance but most of them got through. Fears that quotas would amount to institutionalised tokenism seem to have yielded to a reality which is a far more gender representative politics. Not just in the number of women elected, but also in terms of female power in the cabinet. The tokens have come a long way.