Italian Women Object to Retirement Age Same as Men's - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Women’s rights and labour groups in Italy are fighting one effort to erase discrimination in the country long known for a less-than-terribly-enthusiastic approach to gender equality: making the standard retirement age the same for women and men.

• Women were allowed to retire at 60, as opposed to 65 for men, ostensibly because women have such a large share of household and family work.

• But the European Union barred the distinction, and Parliament has now set retirement for public workers of both sexes at 65. The private sector is next, the government says.

• Only 45% of women work in Italy, among the lowest rates in the EU, in part because society and the government provide them little assistance at the home. For instance, only 10% of children can get a spot in public daycare. More than half of all women who work stop after their second child.

• Renata Polverini, head of the UGL workers’ union, told the Christian Science Monitor: “Before changing the pension system, the government should have improved services helping female workers, such as daycare for children and the elderly.”

• Tonia Mastrobuoni, an economics specialist for the newspaper Il Riformista questioned the opposition: “I find it particularly odd that unions and women’s groups are defending the old system, based on the assumption the woman’s primary duty is to take care of the house, even if she works outside.”

The Monitor article