Precarious Workers

Italian women workers and women activists between home and factory: the struggle against labour precarity (1950s–1970s)

“…During the National Conference on Women's Employment in 1975, the bill on part-time employment presented by Tina Anselmi, the DC Minister of Labour, was bitterly contested by both left-wing women's associations and trade unions. In the second half of the 1970s, DC women MPs introduced further bills to highlight the increasing popularity of part-time work among women and the need to modernise the labour market (Betti 2022b).…”

“…These part-time contracts had to be in writing and could no longer be informal as they were before; they also had to specify duties and schedules (by day, week, month and year). Politicians, trade unionists, women's organisations and secondwave feminist groups all contributed to the debate from different perspectives, but they all agreed that part-time work could be a tool for redesigning work patterns and promoting a better work-life balance for both women and men (Betti 2022b). In the 1980s, the debate on part-time work was intertwined with the more general debate on the conditions of working women and flexibility, which will be the subject of further analysis.…”