From now on, Italian children can also take their mother's surname. A milestone for the women and another step in the transformation of Italian families. Now only the men would have to tackle more.

When the Italian Constitutional Court announced at the end of last week that the automatic naming of the newborn after the father's surname was illegal, the media, sociologists and many more spoke of an epochal step. And in fact, this judgment represents a turning point in Italy in the perception of the role of woman and man, mother and father in the family.

Nevertheless, one was also a little taken aback. Not because of the decision, but because at the same time the image of the Italian mother came to the fore. After all, she is almost a saint in the local family picture. When the media reports on an incident involving a family, it is not the "mother" who is reported, but Mamma Rosa or Mamma Maria, as if it were their own.

"Well, one thing is the role of the mother in the home, another is the lineage of the family, which until now has been based on the father," explains Monica Santoro, professor at the University of Milan for family sociology and demographic change in an interview with ntv. en.

The Constitutional Court has now put an end to this and has described the automatic assignment of the paternal surname as "discriminatory and unlawful in relation to the identity of the child". Strictly speaking, this automatism also contradicted the Italian constitution of 1947, which enshrines the moral and legal equality of spouses. From now on, the parents decide together whether the child should have one or two surnames and which of the two comes first.

It took a lot of strength and perseverance to achieve this result. Milan lawyer Luigi Fazzo told the daily Repubblica that he and his wife Alessandra Cusan fought for 20 years. They had mutually decided to give their children their mother's surname. Fazzo found the automatism absurd, his wife, an economist, fought in the name of feminism. Meanwhile, the three sons of the two are grown. "We went through all the instances, even dragged Italy before the European Court of Human Rights. And won there." In 2014, the ECtHR condemned Italy for this.

But the politicians did nothing. And so it was once again the Constitutional Court that had to intervene. Although the verdict has immediate effect, it is now up to Parliament to pass a law on it.

"Italy has always been late in recognizing civil rights," explains Santoro. "These issues contain potential for political conflict". Because society is usually more advanced. The fact that the politicians are elected anyway has to do not least with the fact that the majority of voters are increasingly advanced in age and still have a traditional family image. Few people give a damn that politicians like Silvio Berlusconi publicly stand for an image of the family that contradicts their own private lives. The divorces and extramarital affairs are ignored. And although Italian society is now just as secularized as most Western societies, many still have in mind that there is still the confessional and absolution for sins. Here, the Catholic Church still shapes concepts of right and wrong, even if everyday life has long been different.

As far as the recognition of same-sex partnerships is concerned, the European Court of Human Rights first had to intervene. Only then did Italy pass a law on this, which prohibits these couples from adopting children who come from the sperm of a foreign donor. Which can lead to deep trauma in the case of separations.

"In general, the Italian family has changed a lot in the last 20 or 30 years," emphasizes Santoro. Marriage was once considered the moment of transition to adult life, the moment "in which one committed to family formation and procreation". The wedding was considered one of the social highlights of a family. If it was financially possible, the parents bought the new couple an apartment and then eagerly awaited their first grandchild.

This ritual has increasingly lost its value. Today, almost 40 percent of couples move in together before marriage and marriage does not always follow. Another extremely important indication of the change in the Italian family is that 30 percent of newborn children now have parents who are not married. In the 1990s it was just seven percent.

The change in the Italian family shows a north-south divide, which has to do largely with job opportunities and thus also with the possibility of breaking away financially from the family of origin. And there are many more in northern Italy. "But I suspect that the double surname will be accepted in both northern and southern Italy without any problems," says Santoro. And speaking of family names. Unlike in many countries, women in Italy keep their maiden names after marriage. She only takes over her husband's if she wants to take it off herself.

Another important step in 2012 was the introduction of compulsory parental leave of ten days for the father, who can also share the subsequent voluntary parental leave with the mother. The measure is particularly important for a country like Italy, which registered just 399,431 newborns in 2021 while 709,035 people died. Compared to other Western countries, the female employment rate is also low, in March 2022 it was only 51.2 percent.

According to statistics, 20 percent of fathers took parental leave in 2020. The burden remains primarily on the shoulders of women. "What we absolutely need is a cultural education," Santoro concludes. The commentators agree: the mother in Italy has lost some of her halo, but slowly gained a little more equality.