Still strong disparities in mothers' welfare across Italy: report

ROME, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Strong welfare and social disparities still exist in Italy, a study warned on Wednesday.

"Deciding to become mother in our country can affect the social, professional, and economic status of a woman, depending on the region in which a child is born," no-profit group Save The Children-Italy wrote in its Mothers Report 2017.

Such disparities would be mainly consistent with Italy's traditional North-South divide, with northern regions "increasingly virtuous, with few exceptions" and southern ones "too often lacking in motherhood services."

The group specified such gaps emerged from the analysis of 11 parameters in all three major indicators of mothers' welfare: health care, employment, and childhood services.

The report confirmed northeast Trentino Alto Adige as the most "mother-friendly" region -- the same as in the 2016 index -- followed by northwest Valle d'Aosta, and by Emilia Romagna (both in northern Italy).

Central Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche regions came next.

Southern Sicily ranked 20th, both registering the worst performance at national level, Save the Children noted. A little better was Calabria (19th), Apulia (18th), Campania (17th) and Basilicata (16th), all of them southern regions.

However, the research detected a general deterioration in mothers' welfare in the whole country, the group stressed in a statement after releasing the report.

A main cause of inequality would remain the difficulty to reconcile family and work life. "The unemployment rate among women -- and especially mothers -- is among the highest in Europe, and gender discrimination is well rooted in the job market," researchers said.

A strong imbalance between mothers and fathers in sharing the family burden still existed, giving women little chances to harmonize their domestic commitments with a job, also due to "a very poor supply of children educational services."

Even when succeeding in finding employment, mothers in Italy could count on fewer options and tools -- such as flexibility and other policies commonly use to boost female participation -- compared to other major EU countries, according to the study.

In 2016, women in Italy became mothers at 31.8 years on average -- compared to 30.6 years in Europe -- according to data by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT).

The country's fertility rate in the same year was 1.34 children per woman (more specifically, 1.2 for Italian women, and 1.97 for immigrant women) against an estimated European average of 1.60.

"In country such as Italy, where the number of newborn babies is in constant decline, it is unacceptable that so little attention is paid to motherhood, beyond rhetoric," Save The Children-Italy program director Raffaella Milano said. Enditem