Territorial Inequalities in Access to Healthcare and Their Effects on Women’s Labour: A Constitutional Perspective From the Italian and Spanish Cases

Abstract

The article offers a comparative analysis of the right to health in light of Article 32 of the Italian Constitution and Article 43 of the Spanish Constitution, highlighting how healthcare decentralisation has generated persistent territorial inequalities in access to healthcare services, albeit through different mechanisms in the two legal systems. The analysis shows that these asymmetries have a particularly significant impact on women's employment, as healthcare mobility and the fragmentation of services turn the “logistics of care” into an employment-related variable, with cumulative effects on income, job continuity, and professional opportunities. Finally, the article examines corporate welfare as a possible compensatory response, while also highlighting its potential and its systemic limitations.