Getting women back into the labour market

Newsletter 2008-5

Publication date : 2009-03-03

Although female employment in Germany increased from 45% in 1950 to 62.2% in 2006, it nevertheless remains well below the male employment rate of 72.8%. What’s more, there is a large discrepancy between the volume of work carried out by women and men, namely due to the fact that roughly 70% of women take a break from their working life to have children. In fact, the labour force participation rate for mothers with two or more children stands at just 56% and full-time employment for mothers dropped considerably between 1976 and 2004.

Family-related employment breaks and traditional gender- related role assignments also influence the behaviour of employers, who tend to assume that men will be more available for work than women. This has further resulted in a gender pay gap of 23% and in smaller pensions for women.

All this not only goes against the principle of equal opportunities inscribed in German law, but it also means that, with the country’s ageing population and falling birthrates, the country could lose 9 million women, or 20% of its workforce, within the next decade.

Increasing female labour market participation is thus essential, and this is the aim of the Perspektive Wiedereinstieg Action Programme, which was the subject of the Peer Review meeting hosted by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) with the support of the Federal Employment Agency (FEA) on 17-18 November 2008.

The Programme, which is designed to ease mothers’ return to the labour market and strengthen women’s financial and social security, has four different strands: vocational reintegration, through training measures and connections with employment agencies and enterprises; work with employers to promote more ‘family-friendly’ employment conditions; local-level informational projects; and an online advisory portal.

Lessons learned

Participants felt that the German Programme was innovative and an example of good governance as it brings together a variety of stakeholders and ensures the proper coordination of policies at different government levels.

In particular, participants agreed with the need for a ‘lifecycle approach’ that sees the mother’s return to the labour market as a process requiring support both from family members (namely to avoid women bearing the ‘double burden’ of employment and household duties alone), and from the employer. Tailor-made solutions are needed to help women upgrade their skills and regain confidence after long periods of unemployment. More flexible working arrangements (such as the Dutch four-day-week approach for all working family members), and easy availability of quality child-care and care for the elderly were also seen as crucial factors.

Members of the Review further pointed out that encouraging women back to work should be placed in the wider context of fighting family poverty and that it is therefore important to ensure that work pays – especially when it comes to lower-skilled jobs. In this respect, it was also stressed that tax benefit schemes should not act as a deterrent for lower-paid workers to return to work, but should seek to enable women to be more economically independent. Furthermore, participants believed governments should take a holistic approach to employment policies, also taking into account other aspects of day-to-day life.