A calculation: 1945 + 65 = 2010. That is why the Ministry of Social Affairs set up a task force in 2010 to gently encourage women to work more hours: the Part-time Plus Task Force. Because it was in that year that the first baby boomers, born after the end of the war in 1945, reached the retirement age of (then) 65 years.
Because women in the Netherlands only work 24 hours a week on average, the government foresaw a major problem in the labor market on the horizon. So no one can say that the government had not predicted the current problems in the labor market. We can conclude, however, that we as a country have failed miserably in preventing these problems.
Self-determination
The cabinet also had the solution in mind at the time. If women in the Netherlands were to work more than 24 hours, the gap in the labor market created by the departure of the baby boomers would be filled. Moreover, it would make women economically independent – also not wrong if we take all our talk about emancipation, autonomy, self-determination and equality seriously.
Because if you work 24 hours, you will not be able to provide for your own livelihood or to build up sufficient pension and you will therefore remain dependent on your partner, your parents or Vadertje Staat. There is really nothing emancipated about that, no matter how much oat milk you put in the coffee.
About the author
Marjolijn van Oordt is an expert in crisis management.
It is therefore quite unusual that there have been calls to bring migrant workers from low-wage countries to the Netherlands again, or even from the banlieues of Paris, but no movement has yet started to actively motivate Dutch women into the labor market. Because the solution is right there, right under our noses.
It is the women who can be the saviors for the problems in education, the judiciary, at Schiphol, at the NS, in healthcare, the catering industry and the rest of society. Women, we can do this. We can wash this little piggy like we have kept families going for centuries by always seeing where a helping hand needed to be reached to keep the system functioning.
So, if for whatever reason you are not motivated to pursue a career or look for a job – think of the Netherlands as a big family where you have to intervene or else things will collapse. Just like you do in your own family. Take that responsibility. You can do it because you do it at home every day. And there is a good chance that you are also trained for it, paid for by the same society that needs you now.
vacuuming
To make all this possible, we also have something like the men need. Only when men are responsible for their equal share in the household and upbringing will women be given the opportunity to fully participate in the work process outside the home. This is a major task for the government. Instead of focusing on women’s emancipation, policy should be aimed at getting men to educate, vacuum and cook.
There is a huge amount of data available on how the government can tackle this, conveniently summarized by Sophie van Gool in her book Why women earn less† Not with instagrammable vacuuming father films, with strict policies in the field of parental leave, childcare, the financial valuation of household and educational work and closing the pay gap. It is high time for a Minister of Labor Participation and Emancipation who has just as much guts as Minister Christianne van der Wal in nitrogen policy.
We know what to do, we just need a woman with guts at the controls.