Women who work less when they have a child often work part-time for the rest of their careers. Two out of three mothers do not return to the number of hours they worked before having children. According to the Office of Social and Cultural Planning (SCP), this has everything to do with government policy.
With the arrival of the children, paid work is permanently put on the back burner for most mothers. Women and their environment, including employers, take this for granted. But if mothers worked harder when their children are older, the shortage in the labor market would decrease significantly, writes the SCP in a study published Thursday.
According to the SCP, the government’s policy on increasing labor participation among women is aimed at young mothers, for example by focusing on free childcare and more parental leave. And that while half of all women working part-time are mothers with older children. If politics were to focus more on that group, a lot could change in our country.
Such a change would not only help solve the shortage in the labor market. According to the planning agency, the percentage of women in management positions is therefore increasing and more women can become financially independent.
The cabinet has now proposed giving people a bonus when they work full time. But whether this will encourage women to start working harder remains to be seen, according to Wil Portegijs, a researcher at SCP. “Part-time work is not only deeply rooted in our society, but also in the lives of many women themselves.”
If the government wants to get the group of mothers with older children moving, more than leave and childcare arrangements are needed, the researcher thinks. He thinks, for example, of conversations with expectant mothers who temporarily want to work less. If the arrangements are made in advance, they are more likely to revert to the number of hours they worked before having children.
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