One in three women is not economically independent. That is a group of more than 1.6 million. This means that she does not earn at least the social assistance level, about 1080 euros net per month. About one in five men do not earn this income.
This is evident from the new biennial Emancipation Monitor of Statistics Netherlands (CBS), which uses data from 2021.
Although women more often than men have insufficient income to support themselves, they are working more and more hours per week. In 2013 they worked an average of almost 27 hours a week, in 2021 this was already an average of 29.2 hours.
Men work an average of 39.4 hours per week. That is not getting any less. “The general opinion is that women are better suited to take care of children than men,” explains CBS chief sociologist Tanja Traag. “For women with small children, we think working two or three days a week is enough, for men it is more likely four or five days.”
Champion
The Dutch therefore remain part-time champions. Nearly seven in ten women and two in ten men work less than 35 hours a week. That is also the case because in the Netherlands, unlike many other countries in Europe, you can have solid part-time jobs. “If you offer people that opportunity, they will also use it,” says Traag.
The CBS sociologist notes that Dutch women are often criticized for being part-time princesses, but that this study shows that they are quite caught between the call to work longer hours on the one hand and public opinion on the other, which believes that they are mainly to be with their children.
You can see in the figures that women start working fewer hours as soon as they become mothers. For this they work an average of almost 35 hours a week. If there is a baby, 45 percent will work less or even stop altogether. Fathers rarely adjust their working week, although most do take maternity leave. This is one working week of fully paid leave and then another five weeks at 70 percent of wages. It is strange that women do, and men do not, work less if you look at their wishes: most couples indicate that they prefer to divide the care for children equally.
Work and private
Many women who work part-time would like to work more hours. A group of 7 percent of working women who are not in education, about 209,000 women, are even available for more hours of work within two weeks. Some 77,000 men also say they can work more immediately.
The main reason given by women for working more hours is if household income is insufficient. Women do want to be able to combine work and private life by working at self-chosen hours and close to home. Good and affordable childcare is mentioned less often. The cabinet plans to make the nursery free from 2025.