Family needs and female work: A comparative survey of public policies and private choices on equal opportunities

Recent studies show that Italian women's education and skills are high and that they have access to the job market, but, at the same time, there are many difficulties in maintaining a job in certain periods of their lives. Exactly, the critic period is connected to the choice of having children or a "traditional family" and, in general, with family duties. To explain the different percentage of women participation to job market in different countries, recent studies have looked to peculiar institutional structure of "municipal" job market and to social support services. The public offer of childcare and family support explains lots of the differences among different countries, but it is a complex datum, really hard to detect, collect, and interpret. Other relevant data are statute provisions on parental leave (mother or father oriented). A systematic analysis has shown that we have, both at a national and at a European level, legal rules and models which should promote equal opportunities, but that we miss cultural promises going in the direction of supporting families and encouraging the preservation of female job place. This study also investigates two different kinds of answers, analyzing and comparing microchoices (technical and juridical instruments) and macrochoices (legal policies) that different legal systems, have adopted in the European context to promote an effective integration between lifetime and job time, to support families in terms of public services, and suggest possible new instruments connected with partnership of public and private programs.