Reuters<\/a><\/p>\nEvery afternoon in a Milan suburb, Diego Di Franco picks up his children from school, manages after\u2011school activities and prepares dinner, tasks traditionally associated with Italian mothers. The routine is unremarkable in Italy, except that he is a father and he shares it online.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s parliament in February rejected a proposal to equalise maternity and paternity leave, but Di Franco and a growing number of so\u2011called \u201cdad influencers\u201d are reshaping how fatherhood looks in a country still struggling to reconcile work, family and gender equality.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Italy-Trezzano-sul-Naviglio-Diego-Di-Franco-and-daughter-090426013.jpg\")
Father of two and family influencer Diego Di Franco takes his daughter Eva to a birthday party, in Trezzano sul Naviglio, Italy, on 9th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Claudia Greco<\/p>\n
In the euro zone\u2019s third\u2011largest economy, led by its first female Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has a nine-year-old daughter, women shoulder most care work and face one of Europe\u2019s widest gender employment gaps, a drag on long\u2011term growth as the population ages.<\/p>\n
Economists and activists say the situation is exacerbated by a stark policy imbalance: five months of maternity leave versus just 10 days of paternity leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of dad-influencing bloggers is increasing and it\u2019s very varied. They\u2019ve made a huge contribution in putting forward a different narrative about fatherhood, which is more inclusive, more equal, also fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Annina Lubbock, a sociologist and consultant for Children\u2019s Health Centre (CSB)\u00a0<\/p>\n
An opposition-backed proposal to introduce equal, non\u2011transferable and fully paid parental leave for mothers and fathers, modelled on reforms adopted in countries such as Spain, was turned down by 137 votes to 117 by the centre\u2011right majority, citing budget constraints.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a woman wants a career in Italy, she is better off not becoming a mother,\u201d Olympic gold\u2011medallist swimmer Federica Pellegrini, who has two children, wrote on Instagram after the bill failed, echoing what many Italians see as a trade\u2011off between work and family life.<\/p>\n
The parliamentary outcome contrasts with a trend playing out on social media, where Italian fathers are increasingly posting about daily childcare, turning paternal care into a visible, mainstream narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of dad-influencing bloggers is increasing and it\u2019s very varied. They\u2019ve made a huge contribution in putting forward a different narrative about fatherhood, which is more inclusive, more equal, also fun,\u201d said sociologist and consultant for Children\u2019s Health Centre (CSB) Annina Lubbock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a reflection of a change that\u2019s been ongoing in Italy already for some time, but these influencers are also driving this change,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Italy-Trezzano-sul-Naviglio-Diego-Di-Franco-090426014.jpg\")
Father of two and family influencer Diego Di Franco sets up his phone as he gets ready to record a video, in his children\u2019s bedroom, in Trezzano sul Naviglio, Italy, on 9th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Claudia Greco<\/p>\n
A prominent example is Di Franco, a 45\u2011year\u2011old father of two with more than 50,000 Instagram followers. He documents life as a primary caregiver while his wife Raffaella works full\u2011time as a senior manager, an arrangement that remains uncommon in Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 85 per cent of my followers are women, many asking how to encourage their partners to be more present at home,\u201d Di Franco told Reuters.<\/p>\n
For Raffaella, Diego\u2019s presence proved decisive for her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave me the confidence to face challenges and seize opportunities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Yet the Di Franco household remains far from the norm.<\/p>\n
Female employment in Italy stood at 53 per cent in 2024, with the widest gender employment gap in the EU, according to Eurostat. Across the EU as a whole, the female employment rate is 70.8 per cent.<\/p>\n
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Women account for around 70 per cent of voluntary resignations in Italy, often following childbirth, while involuntary part\u2011time work remains widespread.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a clear sign of the child penalty women pay for having children,\u201d said statistician Linda Laura Sabbadini.<\/p>\n
Economists link the difficulty of juggling work and raising a child to Italy\u2019s demographic decline, warning that higher female employment is essential to sustain growth and public finances, and more help for working women would encourage them to have children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis law would have been a cultural revolution,\u201d opposition Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein told parliament.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Italy-Trezzano-sul-Naviglio-photo-of-Diego-Di-Franco-Raffaella-Nugnes-and-children-Eva-and-Enrico-09.jpeg\")
A photo of Diego Di Franco, Raffaella Nugnes, and their children Eva and Enrico is kept in their home in Trezzano sul Naviglio, Italy, on 9th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Claudia Greco<\/p>\n
Lawmakers from Meloni\u2019s Brothers of Italy party said they had no ideological objection to expanding paternity leave but argued it was financially unsustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurthermore, a mandatory five\u2011month leave for fathers would require deeper analysis due to possible impacts on public administration and small businesses,\u201d Walter Rizzetto, president of the Chamber\u2019s Labour Committee, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Evidence from abroad suggests policy design matters.<\/p>\n
After Spain extended paid paternity leave to 16 weeks and made it compulsory and non\u2011transferable in 2021, uptake among fathers rose sharply and the gender pay gap narrowed, according to academic studies.<\/p>\n
In Italy, research by thinktank Tortuga shows that when private companies offer extended paternity leave, the uptake rate rises to 71 per cent, compared with a 64 per cent national average, with younger fathers more likely to take advantage of the policy.<\/p>\n
Personal experience has made Di Franco optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my first child I was the only dad at kindergarten,\u201d he said. \u201cSix years later, there were three or four. And I thought: things are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MATTEO NEGRI and GISELDA VAGNONI, of Reuters, report that while Italian lawmakers have rejected a proposal to equalise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2036,7586,7587,325,5,7588,7589],"class_list":["post-10293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-children","tag-dad-bloggers","tag-dad-influencers","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-italy","tag-parents","tag-paternity-leave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}