Gender equality How are EU rules transposed into national law? Italy 2025

Article 37 of the Italian Constitution of 1948 states both equality at work between men and women and women’s right to working conditions that allow them to fulfil their essential family functions and grant adequate protection to the mother and the child. The ambiguity of this rule rests on the principle of equality being flanked by the necessity of protecting women as weak subjects of the labour market. The logic of protection prevailed over that of equality for the next 30 years. During that period, alongside instruments of protection necessary to allow women to fulfil their family functions (such as protection against dismissal on grounds of marriage or pregnancy, compulsory maternity leave, and a ban on heavy and unhealthy work during pregnancy and motherhood), there was an excess of protection that discouraged women from working.