7 minutes agoWhy a large part of the Dutch work part - time
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)The Netherlands is constantly listed as one of the best living places in the world. Dutch children are among the happiest in the world, according to Unicef. Some attribute their high quality of life to the general nature of their work. More than half of the population employed in Holland work [...]
On average, only one fifth of the working age population in EU member states keeps part-time work (8.7% of men and 32.2% of women; in Holland, 26.8% of men and 76.6% of women work less than 36 hours a week. Why?
Part of the reason is that Dutch women have recently become familiar with the job market. Compared to other countries, few men had to leave to fight in the world wars of the 20th century, with the result of women who did not work in factories like they did in the United States and Britain. Thanks to local wealth, dual income from husband and wife was not a necessity for a comfortable life. Thus, Dutch politics was dominated by Christian values until the 1980s: The focus was primarily on providing state aid (included activities in the fiscal system) so that women could stay home with their children.
This changed in the late 1980s, when the state realized it would be a good idea to mobilise women into the workforce. But the cultural conviction that families still needed mothers to be at home for teatime prevailed, so the state worked closely with employers to ensure that new part - time jobs would enjoy legal status similar to their full - time counterparts. This has continued in a sense: In the year 2000, the right for women and men to look for work to be part - time was written in law. But Ronald Dekker, a work economist at Tilburg University, thinks that this law is a confirmation of the existing practice, and for this largely symbolic reason, it is necessary only for some “archic industry”.
If part-time work is good for emancipation, that is questionable. Today, perhaps because part - time work is standard, women in the Netherlands have a relatively high level of participation in the workforce. But Holland's record of taking women in key management roles is extreme.
The Dutch government has said 30% of the executive board positions should be maintained by women, but this may be highly optimistic; the level in 2015 was only 6%, according to Mijat Läckerath, an academic at Tilburg University who blames old-fashioned selection processes. And not all participants are satisfied with their situation: prior to the financial crisis, less than 10% of the Dutch participants wanted them to work full-time; this has increased by about 25%. This percentage is still much lower than in other EU countries, but it is an apparent increase.
