THEa legal battle that could redraw the boundaries of parental rights in Italy it started from a seemingly simple request. Two women, both recognized as mothers by the Italian state, asked to be able to take advantage of the ten days of paid paternity leave that the law guarantees to every father. A request which, however, turned into a case that reached the Constitutional Court.
Two mothers and denied paternity leave
The two mothers asked themselves: why, if the State recognizes them both as parents, to the second mother should that right that is automatically granted to any father be denied?
INPS, the body that manages these leaves, found itself faced with a short circuit: the lawIndeed, explicitly talks about “paternity leave”, but what happens when the second parent is a woman? The bureaucracy got stuck, because the IT system did not foresee this possibility.
The case of two women, both recognized as parents and mothers by the Italian state, who were denied paternity leave, will end up before the Constitutional Court (Getty Images)
Paternity leave, when the law doesn’t keep up
There Court of Appeal of Brescia decided, however, that the issue is too important to be resolved with a simple interpretation of existing law. He therefore requested the intervention of the Constitutional Court, believing that the law that excludes the second mother from that leave in the case of a same-parent couple, determines “a violation of the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation” established by European Union law and of the principle of equality of art. 3 of the Italian Constitution.
The associations in the field
The case would never have reached the Council without the work of the Lenford Network, a group of lawyers who have been fighting for LGBTQI+ rights for years, and the CGILwho together transformed the request of two mothers into a collective action and a battle of civilization that could help thousands of families.
INPS has already updated the platform
The INPS, for its part, has already taken a first step, modifying its platform to allow access to parental leave to both parents, regardless of their gender. But it’s not enough. Mandatory paternity leave remains a right denied to second mothersa discrimination that the Court of Appeal of Brescia defined as “not reasonable”.
More inclusive parental leave: will the law be changed?
Now, therefore, the ball passes to the Constitutional Court, whose decision will go well beyond the specific case. Why will have to decide whether a fundamental right like taking care of your child in his first days of life, depends on the gender of the parent. And it will have to determine whether our Constitution can tolerate this unequal treatment.
The verdict could mark an important point in the recognition of the rights of same-sex families in Italyforcing the legislator to rethink the rules on parental leave in a more inclusive way.
And this is why the battle of these two mothers who, they don’t want to overturn the established order, but they just want it to recognize them toowill be an important indicator of the degree of inclusion and equality that our country is willing to guarantee to all families.
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