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Bloomberg.com: Exclusive: "Italian Women Defy Berlusconi Appeals, Choose Jobs Over Babies

By Flavia Krause-Jackson and Flavia Rotondi
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July 9 (Bloomberg) -- At 34, Valentina Mengozzi has almost everything she ever hoped for: a loving boyfriend, a good job and a nice flat in Rome. Everything except a baby.

``It's a luxury I just can't afford,'' said Mengozzi, a self-employed consultant. ``I feel that if I was living anywhere else, I would probably be a mother by now. But not here. It's very difficult.''

In Italy, lack of financial support for working mothers is forcing women to choose between careers and families, leading to the second-lowest fertility rate and the lowest level of female employment in the European Union. That combination leaves Italy short of workers to pay for the EU's costliest pension system, an issue new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he intends to fix.

``There are far too many women at home and too many empty cradles,'' said Emma Marcegaglia, the first female head of the 100-year-old Confindustria, Italy's biggest business lobby. Marcegaglia, who runs her family's business, had her only child when she was 38.

Berlusconi, who has named a record four women to his 12- member cabinet, promised during the April campaign to pay 1,000 euros ($1,570) to couples having their fir"