Maternity penalty slows down work and population growth
Gender equality more formal than substantial, the Gap is likely to worsen as the population ages. 4.Managers: involve men
Key points
- The analysis of the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law 2026 report
- One in two women with children work in Italia, one in three in the Mezzogiorno
- As the population ages, it becomes a family penalty
- The role of individuals and companies
(IlSole24Ore-Radiocor) - If it will take five more generations of women to achieve true gender equality, for Italia the crux is not in the laws but in practical customs. With effects that risk aggravating even the already difficult demographic crisis, as well as taking talent away from the world of work. Individual responsibilities, together with companies and institutions are therefore called upon. A fact underlined by the World Bank's report Women, Business and the Law 2026 and recalled by Francesca Mazzolari, General Manager 4.Manager: 'A first relevant gap for Italia emerges between the index of the legal framework relating to gender equality (92.93) and that of the institutional capacity to guarantee the provisions of the law (77.93),' she says.
In essence, despite years of legislation to beat the gender gap, the real crux comes when we move from intentions to deeds. In couples where women work, it is the data that show that 'responsibility for children, but also for elderly or dependent family members, continues to weigh disproportionately on women: four hours and forty-four minutes a day is women's family work, compared to two hours and six minutes for men. This limits their access, permanence and progression in occupations that require flexibility, mobility or extended hours," Mazzolari says. This phenomenon results in the so-called 'maternity penalty'. In Italia, about 55 per cent of women with children work, a quota that drops to 35.3 per cent in Southern Italy. Even 15 years after the birth of a child, working mothers earn on average 40% less than other women and work fewer hours'.
Progress, in fact, has been seen in the last twenty years, according to data collected by Istat. If, in 2023, women aged 25 and over were devoting an average of 4 hours and 44 minutes a day to family work, compared with 2 hours and 6 minutes for men, a gap of 2 hours and 38 minutes, ten years earlier, in 2003, the gap was more than three and a half hours. The gap has narrowed by about an hour, 'but more as a result of the decrease in women's family work (-40 minutes) than the limited increase in men's (+19 minutes)', notes the Institute for Statistics.
Differences that remain even when women work: in couples aged 25-64 with both partners in employment, men, in 2023, devote 1 hour 48 minutes per day to family work, compared to 4 hours 10 minutes for women.
An effect that is also being felt in the increasingly empty cradles, with the fertility rate dropping to 1.14 children per woman. Part of the NRP funds have been earmarked for the creation of more than 150,000 new nursery school places, a 9% increase for children between 0 and 6 years of age, with the long-term goal of 33% coverage nationwide according to European targets. But so far 'progress has been limited: the targets have been revised downwards and only a small proportion of the new places have been made available by the school year 2025-2026,' the 4.Manager points out. It must also be emphasised that strengthening the social infrastructure is not enough. It is necessary to promote a more equal sharing of care loads within families, with a greater involvement of fathers and, more generally, of men".
