Reconciliation of Work and Family Life Policies in the Mediterranean Welfare Regimes: the Italian and the Spanish Cases

Although European reconciliation of work and family life policies were at the beginning driven by a clear compromise with equal opportunities between men and women, in the last decade they have been mainly developed as part of the European employment policy. The objetive of those policies has thus turn into the promotion of a "dual earner" society, that is, a full employment society in which both men and women participate in paid employment. Given the diversity of countries which shape the European Union, this political objetive must have different implications for every country. It obviously demands a greater policy effort in the Mediterranean countries, whose welfare regimes have been characterized by the backwardness of their welfare policies, by their familiarism and by their low female employment rates. The aim of my article will be precisely to describe and assess the reconciliation of work and family life policies implemented Italy and Spain during the last decade, taking into account their defamiliarizing impact.