Women in the Netherlands have always wanted to work part-time jobs rather than full-time and have one of the highest rates for part-time working women. Numerous benefits and incentives have been put into place to try to get the women already in the work force to work full-time and those not in the work force to start. The hopes were that if more women were working, then economic growth would be higher for the Netherlands and they would have a better way of caring for the constantly aging society there. Recently, in 2001, a tax reform was implemented to try to get more women to go to work and worked to a certain degree. More women did join the work force there in the Netherlands, but they now work, on average, fewer hours than they did before the tax reform was implemented.
The women only working part-time had been very confusing for researchers because they do not understand why with all of the incentives and benefits put into place, the women still choose to work only part-time instead of being employed full-time. I personally think that they enjoy and value their family lives in the Netherlands and feel that that may be more important than working, even more important than all of the benefits. As a result I would think that their quality of life there would me much higher than that of the United States, where people are constantly working and in a hurry, and have such a small amount of time to spend with out family.
1 comment:
It is crazy to imagine how people that are doing this research find it strange that women would only want to work part time, and thus have more time to spend with their families. I agree with your assumption about how the quality of life is more than likely better due to this. These women are not stupid and know that if they had to work full time to adequately support their family then I have no doubt that they would. Sometimes incentives such as benefits or more money is not enough when measured against the value of family. Maybe for a change there are people out in this world who truly believe that money is not everything. I applaud these people for not doing the "popular" thing and sticking to what they want and what is best for them and their families. We should do all we can to uplift a struggling economy but should not be shocked when women would rather still be mothers then forty hours or more business women.
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