Cohort: POLS 39

Topic of the thesis: The research project is interested in studying the transition from the 'male breadwinner' to the 'universal breadwinner' model, and what it entails for gender and class equality. By focusing on both the work-welfare nexus and the care-welfare nexus, the thesis focuses on how family and labour market policy change has favoured, retarded, or curtailed the transition to a new 'regime of social reproduction' in the Italian case.

Abstract: In regulating working conditions and defining what needs could be placed on society's shoulders, family and labour market policies have implicitly and explicitly interfered with modes of family formation. The male breadwinner model that characterized the Fordist period has been challenged.
The advent of a more liberal governance of the economy has unleashed a process of welfare state restructuring toward a more 'active' approach. In recasting the relationship between social provision and employment, labour markets have been deregulated. These transformations have contributed to the partial erosion of the male breadwinner model that prevailed for a large part of the 20th century. In its place, the universal breadwinner model is
becoming the norm. Against this background, family and labour market policies play a crucial role in mediating the conditions and the costs of social reproduction at the intersection between the household, the state and the market.
The project proposes to investigate the transition from the 'male breadwinner' to the 'universal breadwinner' model in the Italian case, accounting for social policy change and the growing commodification of social reproduction. By focusing on both the work-welfare nexus and the care-welfare nexus, I analyse how welfare state change has favoured, retarded, or curtailed the transition to a new 'regime of social reproduction'.

Research interests: My research interests lie at the intersection of welfare regime, social policy, political economy and social inequalities.

Graduated from:  Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna; Università degli Studi di Milano

Degrees obtained:  BA - Business and Economics; MA - Global Politics & Society

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