Equal Pay in the 1948 Italian Constitution: A Pioneering Role in Europe?

Guest: Nina Cozzi (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory). After the liberation of Italian territory from the Nazi-Fascist regime, the government begun work on the drafting of a new constitution. One of the most novel aspects of the 1948 constitution was Article 37, which entitled working women the right to equal pay with their male counterparts. In this episode, Nina Cozzi reconstructs the path that led to the introduction of equal pay in 1948, with a clear focus on how women’s access to what had previously been considered ‘male jobs’ provided the impetus for more frequent and vocal demands for fairness. Moreover, she highlights how employers reacted to this major legal innovation and ends by looking at whether the principle of equal pay in Italy has indeed stood the test of time.   (Audio Production: www.citysoundstudio.de)