Labour Cost and Women’s Employment: The Italian and International Debate (1950-80)

The article reconstructs the debate on women’s labour cost in Italy between the 1950s and the early 1980s, highlighting both the gender dynamics inherent in the definition of the concept and the practices through which stereotypes and prejudices about women’s work were translated into action. Drawing on archival sources from women’s associations, trade unions, and international organisations, as well as European and party-affiliated periodicals and press sources, the article analyses the different stages of the debate, linking it to the history of labour and women in Contemporary Italy and placing it within European and international perspectives. The debate on women’s labour cost developed in the context of the widespread mobilisation for equal pay between the 1950s and 1960s, which resurfaced in the debate on women’s employment between the late 1960s and early 1980s. The (real or perceived) high costs of women’s labour — motivated by women’s dual role as workers and mothers — emerged as a problem during the period under consideration and triggered a search for its solutions. The cost of women’s labour still represents a central concern in contemporary debates.

Keywords: women, labour cost, International Organisation of Labour, equal pay, female employment, European Economic Community

Eloisa Betti, Il costo del lavoro e l’occupazione femminile: il dibattito italiano e internazionale (1950-80) in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 310/2026, pp 93-119, DOI: 10.3280/IC2026-310005