In Italy there is a lot of discussion about the birth rate, but for women who choose to have children, reconciling life and work continues to be an almost impossible task. In fact, the vast majority of work related to managing the home or caring for children, elderly parents or non-self-sufficient family members continues to burden women. One in 5 workers leaves their job after the birth of their first child and 72.8% of resignation confirmations for new parents concern women. These are just some of the data that emerge from the ninth edition of the Save the Children report “The tightrope walkers”.
The gender gap in resignations
In 2022, out of 61,391 validations of voluntary resignation for parents of children aged 0-3, 72.8% of cases (equal to 44,699) involved women, only 27.2% involved men. The main reason why female workers resign is the difficulty/impossibility of reconciling work and caring for children. 41.7% attribute this difficulty to the lack of assistance services, while 21.9% attribute this to the work organization model. “Overall, caregiving challenges account for 63.6% of all validation reasons given by working mothers,” the report reads. For men, however, professional motivations continue to prevail.
95% of those inactive for family reasons are women
Then there are those who aren’t even looking for work anymore. Among the inactive, those who declare they are inactive for family reasons are 3 million 478 thousand: of these, 95.6% are women, according to a Uil study. « Women want to be able to work, they want a job that is dignified, fair, safe and that enhances their skills and abilities. They want to be able to choose autonomously whether or not to become mothers and they want that, if they decide to live the experience of motherhood, it does not put itself in de facto antithesis with that of work – states Ivana Veronese, Uil confederal secretary, in a note – Instead being mothers in these conditions, in the conditions that women experience every day at work, can hardly be something to celebrate.”
