Women's employment in Italian and UK hotels

This article uses secondary and primary data to compare and contrast the experience of women in the Italian and UK labour markets. It explores differences in national social policies and the impact of these on employment practices in the hotel industry in each country. It demonstrates that although Italy has a stronger legal framework to support women, their job opportunities are limited and the favourable maternity rights, in particular, appear to be disadvantaging women. By comparison, it shows how fast economic transformation has increased opportunities for women in the UK, but that these tend to be in numerically flexible jobs which are vulnerable to economic fluctuation. The article moves on to evaluate each Government's approach to implementing the European Directive on Parental Leave, and concludes that EU attempts at convergence through legislation are unlikely to be effective as different countries will interpret and implement the legislation in very different ways.