Being a woman and a business owner in Italy

Who is Laura? She is a tailor specialized in curtains, upholstery and home furnishings. 

Her dream in the drawer was to open her tailor studio since she was a little girl, but the path to reach her goal was long. 

Here is Laura’s answer to how it feels to be a mother and a businesswoman and witch difficulty she met during her path to be able to open her Cucielle tailor studio. 

One of the things that appear very important wile she explain her work life, is that she became a mother for the first time at 24 and than at 26, she used to work part time in a tailor studio of a furnishing shop and then in the studio of one of her colleague wile she was taking care of her family. When she opened her own studio, at 35 years old, she explains that her daughters were already grew up and almost independent at home and with their school homework. 

At the question, why didn’t you open the studio earlier she answered that before, her main interest was being a good mother and wife. 

She said that it would have been very difficult for her family if she opened the studio earlier because the grandparents still worked, so they couldn’t help looking after the kids every day. Additionally in Italy, the maternity salary for a business owner wasn’t enough consistent and there wasn’t enough help from the state to help you pay a babysitter or a kindergarten.

She underlines that she really wanted to spend time with her daughters and to be the one always present for them, but if she think about anticipating the opening of her shop, these are the motives that stopped her together with the fact of being scared of all the bureaucracy and failing. 

The fact is that a woman that has her now business is not encourage to have also a family or if she is a mother, it’s not encouraged to open one. 

The state should intervene for every woman and family, the reality is that in Italy it does not do enough.

If you are an employe you can prepare yourself to be a mother because there are some maternity laws that allows you to stay home for at least 5 months, normally divided in two before giving birth and three after. During this period your salary is the 80% of your normal amount. Then there are other 6 month of optional maternity but the price to pay is that your salary goes slowly from a 80% to a 20%. 

When Laura planned to become a mother, there was a similar law for woman that had her own shop but, even if today the situation is slightly better as there are some new laws that are similar to the one above, the problem is that when you have your own business your income is not stable and the salary that the state gives you is based on some laws that categorize your shop in order to decide how many money to give you. At the end of the story, if you are an employe you are safe for a little wile but you never get to receive the help you need, and you receive it even less if you are a business owner.

Normally, a baby that has from 0 to 10 months needs to stay with the mother. The issue is: how can a mother stay with his newborn is she needs to work because the income with thw maternity salary is not enough? How is it possible that the maternity period is so short and not well remunerated? Is it good for the health of the baby to stay away from the mother at just 3 moths? 

The situation in Italy now is more clear: there is not enough interest in helping a woman with her self employment when she is also a mother of a little baby. 

A solution could be a longer maternity, that allows you to have a good income for at least 8 months. Then the parents should decide if they can afford the mother (or the father) to stay home longer, if not the kindergarten fee should be less expensive so that the family can find back its economic stability. 

It looks so easy to help a woman, potential mother and business owner that it seems absurd that this kind of protection not guaranteed.

Italy is plenty of young dreamer, why girls dreams goals always appear so unreachable?