What If Women Had to Quit Their Jobs as Mothers in Order to Work?

What if women had to quit their jobs as moms in order to work? For decades in Italy, employers have forced newly hired women to sign blank resignation letters to be used in case of pregnancy, making them choose between maternity and work.

 

Just in time for Mother’s Day, FCB Milan’s new campaign, “Moms Don’t Quit,” for Corriere della Sera, features real mothers reading resignation letters to their children. The reactions of the children, combined with the desperation of the mothers, discredit the notion that “a woman who works can’t be a mother too,” showing how this is both harmful and futile. “Moms Don’t Quit” seeks to create a new model of working motherhood in Italy in which the two are no longer mutually exclusive.