Motherhood and work in Italy

Abstract

This Special Issue on Mothering and Work in Italy in the Twenty-first Century: Culture and Society* originated in the second workshop of the Motherhood in Post-1968 European Literature Network, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and organized by the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing (Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London). The workshop, entitled ‘Mothering and Work: Employment Trends and Rights’ and held on 26 October 2012, explored, starting from literary texts, the interface of social, economic and political forces that have affected women’s access to the labour market and experience of motherhood in Europe. Regrettably, it has not been possible to keep the cross-cultural, European focus of the original workshop. This Special Issue deals solely with the Italian case. In narrowing down the scope of the Issue, we have nevertheless kept faith with the ideas that animated the Network: first of all, the belief that only by adopting an interdisciplinar...