ABSTRACT
Almost ten years after the debate on the DiCo in Italy led to the demise of the then left-wing government, another “Family Day” took place in Rome in January 2016. As in 2007, hundreds of thousands came and protested against a bill scheduled to be debated in parliament. The bill would give gay couples with civil unions – and unmarried heterosexual couples – the same rights as they would have under marriage, including the adoption of their partners’ children. However, it is mainly the latter part that is much contested in the Italian society, while the issue of giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples is seen as less of a problem today than it was ten years ago. The bill – initiated by a member of the ruling Democratic Party PD – is expected to be approved in the Senato, despite being opposed by large numbers of center-right opposition lawmakers and divisions within the PD. Nonetheless, the events show how the Italians still struggle with the question of what constitutes a family. As this book has demonstrated, this often paralyzes work-family reconciliation policy reform processes. Apart from some modest provisions such as an increased working-time flexibility (Picot and Tassinari 2015), there have been hardly any reform efforts to tackle the reconciliation of family life and work since the end of this book’s study period.
