‘Gender and employment’ in the Italian policy debates: The construction of ‘non employed’ gendered subjects

SynopsisIn this article we reconstruct the development of the issue of ‘gender’ and ‘non employment’ in Italian policy debates from 1995 to 2007. Considering that ‘non employment’ refers to which category of citizens is considered as legitimately non-employed and to what are the gender implications of these assumptions, we ask the following questions: which are the ‘hottest’ issues in Italian policy debates in the area of ‘non employment’? How gendered are debates? What categories of subjects do the debates construct? In discussing Italian policy debates on reconciliation, domestic work, and pensions, we argue that Italian non-employment policies construct specific subjects by reproducing traditional gender stereotypes concerning the division of productive and reproductive work, and by politically articulating the intersection of gender and class, ethnicity, and age which contributes to further disadvantages for women. The article originates from research carried out within the European QUING project (www.quing.eu).