ABSTRACT
In contrast to Germany, Italy has not experienced significant changes in the areas of work and family in spite of a similar starting situation in the beginning of the 1990s. The two quotes3 from a former minister for family affairs and a former advisor to the government put in a nutshell the problems and the challenges for work-family policy reforms to happen in Italy. They corroborate what has already been shown in Chapter 5 – that is, the important role of traditional normative beliefs which permeates the Italian society and the low incentives for Italian parties to compete on the issue of work-family policies.
