Mom no longer works

June 19, 2018

If it was 'normal' for our grandmothers to stay at home and take care of raising their children, mothers of the new millennium tend to divide themselves between family and work, for personal satisfaction and to contribute to the family income (as well as, often, to underline the own independence). Yet, according to the data collected by the National Labor Inspectorate - data referring to the year 2016, the latest available - returning to work after maternity leave is increasingly problematic, in all regions of Italy. The reason for this trend is to be found in the difficulty of reconciling career and family care , especially in the first years of the child's life and, above all, considering the high costs for nursery schools, low salaries and grandparents who often cannot look after their grandchildren , since many times they are themselves still workers.

In 2016, there were 37,738 voluntary resignations of parents with children up to the age of 3, of which 29,879 by women. Of these, 24618 emphasized the difficulty of managing child care due to high costs and the lack of nursery schools. Interestingly, only about a thousand out of 7,859 dads made the same choice. Analyzing the qualifications and professional types of women who leave their jobs, it clearly emerges that salary is a determining factor in choosing one's future. Over 28,000 workers and office workers are in a position to leave their jobs, compared to 680 managers . Between nanny, nursery and shopping, many mothers believe it is more convenient to stay at home with the children rather than go to work 'for nothing'.

The work area is a further discriminating factor. Incredibly, the mothers of Lombardy are the first in the ranking (5 thousand women out of 8850 have left their jobs for family reasons), despite the fact that the region is known for the efficient network of nurseries it is able to guarantee. In Veneto, the second region in the standings, it is emphasized that career/home management difficulties derive mainly from the failure to grant adequate part-time and shifts. In the ranking of the 'unhappy' regions for working mothers, Lazio is third (1519 out of 3616) and Emilia Romagna fourth (1243 out of 3609). In the south, resignations drop significantly, but this figure is assumed to be linked to high female unemployment. It is to be hoped that the various bonuses allocated by the Government will help avoid this depressing phenomenon. by Carlotta Cordieri taken from Born Mom