The effects of the pandemic weigh more on women (and cribs)

11/25/2020 Health, Italy, World



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am give him do the shopping more than anyone else crisis caused by the pandemic. In the labor market, together with young people, they proved to be the most fragile link in the chain, so much so that in the second quarter of the year, which largely coincided with the blockade, almost half a million jobs have been lost, to be exact 470 thousand.

The female employment rate between 15 and 64 years of age decreased to 48.4%, compared to 66.6% for men, placing Italy in the penultimate place of the European ranking, just above Greece, despite the fact that the level of education of women is on average higher than that of men.

The data emerged during the hearing of theState in the maneuver and they are paired with another sad Italian record, that of empty cribs, destined to be accentuated precisely in coincidence with the spread of the epidemic.

According to the president of the Institute of Statistics, Gian Carlo Blangiardo, the health and economic crisis could have a negative impact not only on the number of deaths but also on the birth rate. The climate of fear and uncertainty and the growing difficulties of a material nature (linked to employment and income) “will have a negative influence on the fertility choices of Italian couples,” he stressed.

And then i 420 thousand births registered in Italy in 2019, which already represents a minimum never reached in more than 150 years of national unity, could fall further around 408 thousand in the final 2020 budget and then to 393 thousand in 2021. The trend will be evident in the December data that, according to Blangiardo, nine months after March, the period when the emergency began, will show a sharp decrease in births compared to the approximately 35 thousand registered in previous years.

Much, if not all, revolves around the role played in society by women, in a sense left alone both in the family and in the world of work. The single allocation introduced in the budget law could contribute in this sense to “help”, but it will not be enough to reverse a demographic trend that has been occurring for years for social, economic and cultural reasons.

The effort to revive the birth rate must be comprehensive and cannot consist solely of bonuses. Just think about the result of the natural bonus nest, a positive measure but that in the South collided with reality, that of lack of kindergartens. It was not possible to take it not because there was no need, but because of a lack of facilities in which to spend it.

The result is that in 2019 aid reached more than 30 children out of 100 in Valle d’Aosta, Umbria and Lazio, less than 14 children out of 100 in Calabria, Campania and Sicily.