The attachment of adult women to the Italian labour market in the shadow of COVID-19

Abstract

We investigate the attachment to the labour market of women in their 30s, who are combining career and family choices, through their reactions to an exogenous, and potentially symmetric shock, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that in Italy a large number of females with small children, living in the North, left permanent (and temporary) employment and became inactive in 2020. Despite the short period of observation after the burst of the pandemic, the identified impacts appear large and persistent, particularly with respect to the males of the same age. We argue that this evidence is ascribable to specific regional socio-cultural factors, which foreshadow a potential long-term detrimental impact on female labour force participation.