Transcript The case of Italy

GENDER ISSUES
ACADEMIC YEAR2014-15
Maria A. Confalonieri
Lecture 11
The origins of the Italian welfare state
and of its gender regime in
1861-1945. The post-WW2
development
Historical institutionalism
• Founding phase -originary model
• Path dependent development
• 1861-1930 – “modello della
tutela”(tutelage model)
1861
• Unification of Italy
• Deterioration civil rights of womenCodice
Pisanelli
• Proposals for reforms by the liberal and radicals:
divorce, abolition of the authorization of the
husbands to deal with properties (1961-90)
• After 1890 alliance Centre-Right and Church
against the growth of Socialism.
The first legislation on mothers
“tutelage”
• Women labor was a crucial resource for industry
(textiles): wages less ½ than men’s wages.
• 1886 a law on children’s work approved but women
excluded from the protection.
• Problem framing: women ad children as “special” “Weak”
workers deserving protection
• 1902 –Legge Carcano- maternity leave , unpaid, for
women working in factories (excluding agricultural and
home workers)  poorly enforced
• Covergence of the Church, Liberals, the Socialist and
even employers.
• Against protection some radical feminists but a minority
in the Socialist movement.
Anna Maria Mozzoni-opposition to
protection laws
Protection laws will bring the
exclusion of women from
work, confining them in their
homes “ like hens, brooding
their eggs, in solitude and
silence “
Feminists in the Socialist
Movement
Anna Kulishoff
The demand for wage
equality lukewarmly
supported by the Socialist
movement
Post- WW1
Rewarding women for war effort?
Reforms 1916-21
• In 1917 a law was introduced abolishing the
authorization of husbands for wives to deal with
their property.
• Women admitted to work in Public
Administration, but excluding them from a
number of high positions : de facto rank- andfile.
• A bill for the vote for women was voted in the
Chamber of Deputees and passed to the Seneta
for approval but the legislative process was
interrupted by the crisis that led to the
installation of Fascism
Fascism
• Explicit family policy
• Reinforce the traditional family model and the authority
of fathers (Civil and Criminal Law)
• Natalism as a correlate of aggressive nationalism:
abortion as a crime against the race and prohibition of
contraceptives. Symbolic and monetary incentives to
families with many children.
• Expulsion of women from the labor market and tutelage
of working mothers .
• Yet..political mobilization of women through the fascist
party
Women in the Liberation War
against Nazism and Fascism
Voting rights 1944
• As in France
• Right to be elected only in 1946.
• Intra-party consensus (despite fears of the Left
that women will disproportionality vote for the
right and the monarchy).
• Also fears of low female voting turn-out , which
was not the case …
• Strenght of women interparty political
organizations  GDD(Groups for Defense of
Women) UDI- in 1945 Catholic women split
and form CIF
1946 vote for women- Local
elections and Constitutional
Assembly
Constitutional assembly : few but authoritative
and determinate women’ members (46-48)
Women’s rights in the Constitution
• Art. 3 formal equality (but also legal basis for
equal opportunities “remove obstacles to
equality”)
• Equality in the family
• Equal treatment at work
• Equal access to careers
• An advanced Constitutional compromise
(between secular parties and Christian
Democracy)
• The “Freezing of the Constitution” in the 50s
1946-1960 Cold war political
polarization and women’s issues
the Italian version of the male breadwinner model that
consolidated in Italy in the late Forties and in the Fifties
•
The main features of are the following:
•
-Difficult access of women to the labour market, due to both factors of labour supply
(few services supporting the work of care) and of labour demand (few job
opportunities in the industrial sector and late development of service sector) and to
labour market policies that gave priority to protecting the jobs of the adult males.
•
-A relatively high level of formal equality in employment rights, particularly regarding
wage equality, but poor mechanisms of implementation and enforcement of the rights
formally granted.
•
– A good protection of working mothers through provisions for maternity leave
relatively generous both in time and money.
•
-A remarkable dualism of the female labour market, with a “core” labour market
(including big firms in industry and in the modern service sector and the public sector)
and a lager secondary, under-regulated or un-regulated labour market, including very
small enterprises, outwork and other
The “economic miracle” :declining
employment of women
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T.occ.M
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T. occup.F
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T.disocc.F
19
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Patterns of women’s labour market participation by
age : 1977,1993,2003
Italian women’s political machinery
• 1983-85
• Foreign models + European pressure
• National Equality Committee- labour
market equality : part of the Ministry for
Labor lack of autonomy and resources
• National Commission for Equal
Opportunities: staff of the PM ; parties,
social partners, experts
Reforms in labour market policies
1980s
• Italian model 1880s  high regulation
• Passive labour market policies (income
maintenance)
• 1984 - part-time authorized (but highly
regulated and not
• First active labour market policies with
modest impact include some affermative
action measures
Inclusion of PA mesures in LM
policies (late 19980s early 1990s)
• 1986incentives for young enterpreneurs
in Southern Italy
–Promotion of the employment of the
young
–- incentives to SMI for job creation
–Incentives for the employment of women
(preferential treatment)
Law 125/1991 affermative action
• Palns for affermative action should be put
forward by enterprises . Compulsory for
public administration.
• Reform of WPM local eqaulity advisors :
» Enforcement equality law
» Promotion and projecting of PA measures
» Very modestly founded
1992-2001 Centre-Left Governments
The (weak) institutionalization of GEP
• Institutionalization of a policy: policy issue
(relatively) stably integrated in the
governments’ political agendas
• Specialized agencies (Minister of Equal
Opportunities 1996)
• Somewhat higher representation of
women in Cabinets
Labour market reforms : a new
paradigm?
• From passive to active LMP
• Pacchetto Treu  liberalization of p-time (yet
still regualated)
»Liberalization of temporary work
contracts
»Liberalization of work palcement
(private agencies authorized)
• Decentralization of labour market
policies devolution to the
regions
“flex-security”
• EU emerging paradigm for labour policies :
flexsecurity  labour market deregulation
authorizing easier employing and
dismissals
• But assuring income maintenance in the
transition between works and measures
for re-placement at work
• Right to work and basic income not to the
life-long maintenaince of same workplace
The Italian way to “flex-security”
• Flexibility is a 2 pilla strategy : LM liberalization + income
maintenance and active measures for work placement
(occupabiliy)
• Flexibility was promoted throu LM liberalization by CL
governments (1996-2001)
• A measure of basic income (minimum income in view
for insertion ) experimented in 1999-2000 but abandoned
by later CR governments .
• In Italy only the pillar of flexibility was interoduced
Family work balance
• Financial constraints prevent a robust implementation of new
childacre services.
• But law 53/2000 very innovative:
– Parental leave for both parents (EU dir.1997) but low compensation
(30% wage for 3 months) prevent sharig between parents
– -other forms of leave (ex. for adult education )
– Financement for projects of work-life balance of enterprises (company
créches, flexibele working hours , tele-working)
– Obligation for local governments to regulate the times of towns (opening
hours for shops and public services etc.) in order to facilitate work life
balance
• Implementation -deceiving . Most local governments don’t have
the required planning capabilities . Work life balance plans
elaborated and presented for financement by a restricted number of
regions in the Centre-North
The Governments of Centre Right
(2001-2006)
• Further emphasis on flexibility and
deregulation  p.t. as main solution for
w.l. balance for women
• Rethoric of support to families and
demography (White Book on the Welfare
State 203) but no concrete measure (flat
late low sums for newborn children etc.)
• Disempowerment of equality agencies
(less resources and authonomy)
The II Prodi Government 2006-08
• A broad agenda for GE and family policies and some
reforms
• PIANO NIDI (2007)  substantial funding (446 millions
euros + 228 millions from local governments: 42% in the
Southern regions ) for new services for childcare (target
33%).
• Fund for policies for dependent adults (frail elderly,
disabled)
• Protocol on welfare quality of part-time and better
WLB  reversibility
III Berlusconi cabinet (2008-2011)
• Even stronger rethoric on family model (Minister of the family a
conservative catholic)
• But cuts in expenditure for family policy:
• PIANO NIDI cancelled only 100 millions euro from the Fund for
Families (halved in 2010);
• Fund for social policies reduced at 75,5 millions against 1 billion in
2008
• Last measure :Fund for work-life balance policies of 2009, 40
millions distributed to the regions according to regional programs .
• Emphasis on part-time
• Further attacks at the autonomy and resources of WPM
Monti’s Government 2011-13
• Austerity
• Cancelled the role of Minister of Equal Opportunity (now
responsabilities to a vice-Minister of Labor and welfare)
• Very little room for GE policies:
• Re-regulation of some aspects of labor (prevent
dismissals for maternity)
• Re-planning of the unspent financements from EU
cohesion policies to allow for increasing childcare
facilities in the South .
• Better conceived policies but no room for public
spending.
• A new emerging policy discourse : social investment
perspective . Women as unvalued potential