Women increasingly economically independent, motherhood still a stumbling block | Economy

This is evident from the new Emancipation Monitor of Statistics Netherlands (CBS), which is published once every two years. Almost two-thirds of women under the age of 65 who do not go to school are therefore economically independent. This percentage is higher for men: more than 80 percent earn more than the social assistance level (1,080 euros per month in 2021).

But women are on the rise. Almost 56 percent were allowed to call themselves financially independent last year, compared to more than 42 percent in 2011. Financially independent is someone who earns more than the minimum wage, in 2021 that was 1,540 euros per month. Here, too, the percentage is higher among men: they amount to almost 77 percent.

Statistics Netherlands finds that the number of women who would like to be economically independent, at 75 percent, is higher than the actual percentage of 66 percent. Men find it even more important to be able to support themselves financially: 87 percent answered that question with a yes.

The arrival of children is still an important factor in the difference between men and women. If they do not yet have children, men and women on their own earn about the same amount above the social security level. But when children are born, that changes. Nearly half (45) percent of new mothers are going to work less, compared to less than 7 percent for men, according to Statistics Netherlands. As a result, women are relatively more dependent on their male partner than the other way around.

But here, too, the differences are getting smaller. Women who had their first child between 2012 and 2014 suffered less of a decline in income in subsequent years than women who became mothers for the first time between 2008 and 2010. For men it is the other way around, although the decline in wages is still many times smaller.

Seven out of ten women who work do so part-time. Almost two-thirds of them would like to work more under certain conditions. The main reason to possibly do that: if the family income would be too low. Some of the women also say that working hours that would better suit their private lives could convince them.

In a European perspective, the Dutch work very often. Both Dutch men (85.7 percent of them work) and women (77.5 percent) are third in the ranking. Czech men and Swedish women work the most, Italian men and Greek women the least.