What proportion of mothers work in different countries?

Ah, yes, here in Milan I don't know anyone who stopped working after having had a child.
Milan is an expensive place to live and most families need 2 salaries. I also know lots of women who like their jobs.

I remember reading somewhere that in Portugal 98% of mothers go back to work. I don't know if this ois true or not, but I can say that I'm yet to meet anyone there who decided to stay home after having worked before.

I'm not sure what the reasons are for this, but apart from cultURAL reasons I would say that it is down to money, as I don't think many families could live on one salary only.
Mind you, it puzzles me that 50% of families here can aford to do it....

Ooooh too long to list!

I think that the main reason is that over all the Italian job market is not dynamic. Not flexible. Not competitive etc. For both men and women.

There is also a great difference between northern and southern Italy. In northern Italy the job market is better and therefore there is a higher rate of women in full time employment.

It is difficult to get a part time/flexible job.

Lack of/insufficient child care, especially in central/southern Italy. (Here in Milan we have excellent means tested nurseries, but the places aren't enough)

In general, there is a high correlation between the availability of cheap childcare and the employment rates of mothers.

Here in France there are lots of means-tested crèches. The quality is not very high, though, and set to become lower if new proposals for adult:child ratios become law.

I know that Italy has one of the lowest rate in Europe.

And this in fact is one of the reasons why our fertility rate is so low.

In the Czech Republic, very few mothers of children under 3 work (highly dogmatic social attitudes, plus about the whole psychologist establishment seems to be against). About 0.5% of children under 3 are in childcare, although that figure hides those who use grandparents for childcare - nannies/childminders are rare).

There are also very few part-time jobs, so women with children over 3 tend to go into full-time jobs (unless they've had another child, in which case they're out of the labour market for 5-9 years or so).

There is across-the-board parental benefit of about 250 quid a month (can be drawn by either parent) plus exemption from health and social insurance so the actual value is more like 300+ a month. Recently the system has been changed so you can choose 2, 3 or 4 years (although there's predictably an outcry at 2-year-olds having to start childcare...). You can still claim parental benefit if you work, as long as you're not using a state-owned childcare facility (of which there are very few anyway).

I didn't qualify for any of it (hadn't been registered self-employed for long enough when DD was born).

You can see comparative employment rates for women (not mothers) here