Since this is my newest favorite "rant" topic, it seemed appropriate to blog on it. Since moving to Germany, I've observed a dearth of working mothers around me - and see a fairly high population of mothers choosing to stay home. Thanks to a combination of extremely family friendly employment policies (women can take up to 3 years, 2 without pay, away from work to raise children and still have their job guaranteed upon return) and unfriendly government policies towards a two-income household (school usually ends by 1:30 pm; daycare spots are extremely hard to come by for the under-3 set, shopping hours are limited for errand-running on evenings and weekends, and don't get me started on the *costs* to have a working spouse - higher tax class, no "mother pay", separate health insurance payments... I could go on... ), moms who want to work in Germany are faced with tough and often expensive choices.
The last phrase is not so different from the US, but when you factor in the high cost to live here, and the financial incentives to keep a spouse at home to raise children... the proof is in the pudding. In Germany, only 14 percent of women with one child resume full-time work and a strikingly tiny 6 percent of those with two. Further, where Swedish executive suites boast 17 percent women and the United States and Britain 14 percent, in Germany it is only 2 percent — as in India, according to McKinsey’s 2010 Women Matter report.
And then you have articles like these, evidence of how important, at least in theory, it is to support working mothers in the US. Though the US has fallen to last place among developed nations in supports for working families, clearly on the other end of the spectrum from Germany, companies take the concept of support for working mothers in their own hands. Find the right employer, and you can grow your career as your grow your family.
As an expat here who loves my work as much as I love my family, I want incentives to go back to work that are equal to those for staying home. If the choice is mine to make, it should be equal either way. Priority spots at daycare... subsidized backup childcare... better availability of activities after school and during school breaks...or reduce the subsidies and incentives on the other side.
The last phrase is not so different from the US, but when you factor in the high cost to live here, and the financial incentives to keep a spouse at home to raise children... the proof is in the pudding. In Germany, only 14 percent of women with one child resume full-time work and a strikingly tiny 6 percent of those with two. Further, where Swedish executive suites boast 17 percent women and the United States and Britain 14 percent, in Germany it is only 2 percent — as in India, according to McKinsey’s 2010 Women Matter report.
And then you have articles like these, evidence of how important, at least in theory, it is to support working mothers in the US. Though the US has fallen to last place among developed nations in supports for working families, clearly on the other end of the spectrum from Germany, companies take the concept of support for working mothers in their own hands. Find the right employer, and you can grow your career as your grow your family.
As an expat here who loves my work as much as I love my family, I want incentives to go back to work that are equal to those for staying home. If the choice is mine to make, it should be equal either way. Priority spots at daycare... subsidized backup childcare... better availability of activities after school and during school breaks...or reduce the subsidies and incentives on the other side.
I think a kiddo has arrived. Update on that :)
ReplyDeleteGood guess based on this blog topic! He's two months old and I'm using up maternity leave time to take him around Europe with me :) Look for more posts and even some pics soon...
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