Journalist Debby Gerritsen takes a feminine look at current events and shares what strikes her every week.
Men and women are equal before the law, but in practice this is often not the case. New research by Statistics Netherlands shows that in the past 43 years the annual income of women has increased from 21,000 gross to 34,000 gross. This increase is because women have started working more, and that was not always obvious. When my mother started working part-time more than thirty years ago with three small children and a full-time working man, her environment was shamed. ‘You work? You have three small children at home!’ Work was for men. If you went to work as a woman, you did that in addition to your duties as a housewife. After all, those lunch boxes didn’t fill themselves. That was a lot of work without childcare, my mother told me, but her own career gave her freedom and self-confidence.
Fortunately, thanks to the perseverance of my mother and her contemporaries, the cards have been shuffled a lot better for us – thank you mom! We were allowed to study, were offered nice jobs and were encouraged to get started. And that is necessary, because in the Netherlands only a quarter of women work full-time, compared to three quarters of men. We see that reflected in our bank account. Because although women’s incomes have grown over the past 43 years, the annual salary is still 35 percent lower on average than the male counterpart. The difference between the incomes of cohabiting parents is even greater: 45 percent. Hello, pay gap!
One in three marriages ends in the Netherlands. And women often draw the short straw
I’m glad that my mother – completely (and totally unconsciously) in the thinking of the French primal feminist Simone de Beauvoir – always taught me to be financially independent. It was an important reason for her to go to work. Not because she was unhappy in her marriage, on the contrary. But you can’t predict the future. She wanted to be able to take care of herself should she unexpectedly find herself alone. Not a bad idea, considering that one in three marriages in the Netherlands ends. And women often draw the short straw. In the event of a divorce, men generally gain in purchasing power, while women decline. Often so bad that they are no longer financially able to hold up their own pants. Only half of the women in the Netherlands are financially independent – I find that a shocking observation.
We can largely close the pay gap by working more hours. Not only does it give you more freedom, it also gives you a better position in the company – you simply cannot break the glass ceiling by working half days – and therefore more financial security. But that’s not to say that working full-time (five days) should be the holy grail. Because let’s not forget that unpaid work, raising children or taking care of the elderly, is at least as valuable as that flourishing career in the Zuidas. That ‘work’ also has to be done. By all of us. So we shouldn’t let women work their way up to a ‘masculine’ full-time norm, we should adapt the norm. Working more hours for you means working less for your partner. Emancipation must come from both sides. Men one step back, women one step forward. We’ll get there together.
Agree Disagree? You can respond at the bottom of this article. Only comments with a full name will be posted. We do this because we want a debate with people who stand for what they say, and who put their name on it. If you still need to enter your name, you can do so by clicking ‘Login’ at the top right of our site.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
#marriages #fail #women #draw #short #straw