“Low Italian fertility: the Bonaccia of the Antilles"

Low fertility and high level of ageing make Italy a rather particular case in Europe. While the desire to have children remains unaltered, even in more recent generations and even in women who have invested a lot in their education and want to achieve their career aspirations, fulfilling those desires appears to pose a problem for the majority. The proportions of childless women and of women who have a single child are increased. Low fertility seems to depend on timing and quantum effects. Increase in education and in participation into the labour market affect delay of age at marriage. Quantum effect seem related to the difficulties to reconcile a working and a domestic life in a society that presents gender inequalities.