Coronavirus has further aggravated the condition of mothers
Italy is not a country for mothers. No, this is not the title of an auteur film about to be released in cinemas. This is what emerges from a report drawn up by Save the Children whose title is in itself eloquent enough: "The equilibrists: motherhood in Italy 2020". Constantly divided between work, family and home, Italian women could only earn the title of equilibrists. Is this a compliment aimed at praising our being multi-tasking or a definition that highlights the inconvenience involved in being working mothers in Italy?
A situation already complicated before the health emergency
The Coronavirus emergency was the straw that broke the camel's back. A vase, however, already full on the verge of overflowing. Whether it is discussed on television, in parliament or at the bar, it seems that the responsibility for everything, from managing the children to looking after the house, is the exclusive prerogative of women. Suffice it to say that, even before COVID-19 hit our country, 31.5% of unemployed women were not even looking for work to give priority to the family, while, again for the same reason, 28% of employed women arrived. to the point of leaving his own business. Percentages destined to increase dramatically in the absence of adequate measures to stem the terrible consequences that this historical moment threatens to entail.
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The domestic load is all on their shoulders
With the definitive closure of schools of all levels, the already heavy load left on the shoulders of women has further worsened. From the interviews conducted during the report, 3 out of 4 mothers say that for them the domestic workload has even increased, as they can no longer count on external help for the care of children, elderly people and non self-sufficient people. And don't think that DAD (distance learning) has stripped them from the role of mothers for a few hours, allowing them to devote themselves to work without distractions. Quite the contrary. The distance learning system is not as intuitive as it is believed and often requires the constant surveillance of a parent who is ready to intervene to help their children dealing with methods and protocols to which they were neither ready nor used. A parent who, more often than not, is female and is called a mother. In this regard, the survey on women and care in time of Covid conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the non-profit organization WeWorld revealed that 60% of Italian women had to manage all the family burden alone and 63% of them are convinced that , until the schools reopen, the situation will remain unchanged.
Family or career? An apparently inevitable choice
And so it still happens that women are faced with a dramatic and apparently inevitable choice, a choice that rarely concerns men, or rather, fathers. Family or career? Because, let's not delude ourselves, it is not so obvious that in Italy it is possible to satisfy both. "Excuse me miss, but you are not going to get pregnant, are you?" and a thousand other illicit and discriminating questions that many women report having received during job interviews, so they just have to imagine only two possible future scenarios: the desperate and dissatisfied housewife, deprived of any economic autonomy, or the career woman cold and calculating with only money in mind. A middle ground seems to be interrupted due to work in progress and, waiting for something to move, Italy remains one of the countries with the lowest rate of female employment and the highest rate of poverty among families with minor children, a direct consequence of the concentration of single-income families registered in our country.
In this regard, Antonella Winter, Save the Children's head of childhood policies, urges the institutions to elaborate "an extraordinary plan for childhood and adolescence" otherwise families will feel abandoned and responsibilities will fall again alone and only on women. In the absence of early childhood services, many of those employed in sectors where physical presence is required may decide not to return to work, while workers who can continue smart-working risk being further burdened by an overload of professional and domestic duties, which mix without mercy. Sharing of tasks with your partner or husband: not received. Free time for personal well-being, needless to say.
In short, the road to gender equality with an equal division of labor is still uphill. For women, though.
