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ROME, Oct 16, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- An survey finds Italian women are conflicted by the desire for a career and the pull of family demands.
Italy has the lowest workforce participation rate for women in Europe, with only 45.3 percent of those between 15 and 64 employed.
Censis, a research group in Rome, interviewed 1,200 women and found four out of five say they have not successfully balanced family and work, the news agency ANSA reported. Those who felt they had were usually middle-aged with high incomes and good educations.
"I work because I love my subject and want to have my own income," said Chiara Monicelli, an art teacher in Rome. "But I always feel guilty that I'm not doing enough for my kids, that I'm not being a proper mother,"
But almost no Italian women reject having children. The top response to the question of when a woman is happiest was "when she is pregnant."
"We just don't have dinkies here," said Ketty Vaccaro, head of the Censis project, in a reference to the Double-Income No Kids couples that are becoming more common elsewhere.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
