Ricerc@Sapienza

In Italy the forced familialism has been defined as a strategy that families adopt to address economic constraints, enlarging the cohabitation to other members of the family, such as older parents, in order to provide their weakest members with a stronger support network . It is a sort of return back to a more traditional model of enlarged family, where women’s role is mainly compelled to care work for children and/or for older members of the family. If we consider that in Italy women cannot actually count on the concrete cooperation of their partner, the women’s familism obligations become even more challenging. In this article, gender imbalances in time use are shown comparing the Italian case with three Northern European countries (Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark), in order to provide evidence on how policy measures can enhance redrawing responsibilities in household activities between women and men. At the same time, it is argued that these efforts cannot work effectively without a cultural change based on a more equal assumption of familial responsibilities, aiming at overcoming the familialistic heritage.