The disadvantaged position of women compared to men in the Netherlands will disappear faster in the coming years than has been the case up to now. That is what the leader of the Dutch contribution to a worldwide study into inequality between men and women predicts. He is supported by the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) and experts.
The inequality of opportunity between men and women has been declining since at least 2006. According to research leader Henk Volberda, the predicted Dutch acceleration in favor of women is due to recent government policy.
An example is paid parental leave. Since August last year, employed fathers and mothers have been paid 70 percent of their salary for nine weeks if they take care of their newborn child.
Interest groups have criticized the measure. It would not go far enough, especially for young parents with lower incomes. But Volberda thinks that paid parental leave will have a positive effect for young mothers in the long term.
Fathers and mothers can divide the care tasks more fairly due to the leave, says the business administrator. The same applies if the cabinet gets through the almost free childcare for working parents.
Statistics office CBS found on Wednesday after a survey that after the birth of the first child, mothers in particular continue to work less. Although many parents want to share work and care for children equally, they often fail to do so.
Greater partner involvement
Professor Renske Keizer of Erasmus University Rotterdam, who specializes in parenting, expects paid parental leave to have positive effects in two areas. These effects are especially true when the leave is fully reimbursed.
“We know from research that a greater involvement of the partner in the care of the child is associated with positive outcomes for the child, mother and partner,” says Keizer.
“In addition, under the right circumstances, paid parental leave specifically for the partner can contribute to an increase in women’s labor market participation. And thus also to an increase in women’s economic independence.”
The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has conducted research on parental leave in EU Member States. “If the compensation is more than 66 percent of the salary, it encourages new fathers to take advantage of it,” says a spokesperson. “As a result, the mothers can better participate in the labor market, which improves their position.”
Over de nieuwe Nederlandse data
- Hoogleraar Strategie en Innovatie Henk Volberda heeft de Nederlandse data verzameld voor het onderzoek van het World Economic Forum (WEF) naar ongelijkheid tussen mannen en vrouwen wereldwijd. Dat doet hij sinds 2006 elk jaar. De gegevens zijn nog niet openbaar.
- Volberda is leider van het Amsterdam Centre for Business Innovation (ACBI) van de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Dat heeft de Nederlandse gegevens voor het WEF-onderzoek in beheer.
- Het ACBI stuurt jaarlijks uitgebreide vragenlijsten naar de managers van bedrijven. Ook maakt het ACBI gebruik van openbare gegevens, via bijvoorbeeld statistiekbureau CBS. Het onderzoeksteam kijkt naar gezondheid, onderwijs, invloed in de politiek en werk.
SCP also expects acceleration
Economist and social scientist Maroesjka Versantvoort of SCP also thinks that the gap between men and women can be closed more quickly. Government measures such as paid parental leave can help with this.
“It can be an incentive to combine work and care and to have the division of labor between men and women be more balanced,” says Versantvoort. But she expects that it will not be possible to clear the backlog completely with these measures alone. “More is needed for that.”
Versantvoort gives healthcare as an example. Women are overrepresented in it. “Women more often follow a course that pre-sorts for a profession in which it is more common to work part-time. Those who work part-time are less likely to move on to a high position.”
There is a part-time culture in the Netherlands. This is partly because many women want it for themselves. But according to Versantvoort, it also has to do with the structure of the labor market.
“Due to the schedules in healthcare, for example, it is very difficult to work full-time and thus move more easily to higher, better-paid positions,” she explains. “There is therefore still a task for the government and employers.”
Quota for supervisory board promotes equality
Since January 2022, a statutory women’s quota has been in effect for supervisory boards of large companies. They must consist of at least one third of women. This development also promotes equality for women.
A women’s quota also has an additional effect, explains research leader Volberda. “Girls see more examples to aspire to those kinds of positions later on.”
In September last year it was already known that listed companies had appointed more women than men to these boards for the first time.
The Dutch Female Board Index 2022 examined 89 listed companies. The number who met the requirements of the law had risen from 61 to 72 the year before. The share of women rose from 33 to 38 percent.
There is not yet a quota for boards of directors, which are responsible for the day-to-day management of a company. In the year before September 2022, only 5 of the 32 new appointments in listed companies were women. That was even a considerably smaller share than in previous years. The total share of female directors remained at 15 percent. The year before that was 14 percent.
‘As a government, set a good example with a women’s quota’
Volberda thinks it’s a good idea if the government also imposes a women’s quota on itself. He said that would set a good example.
There is also room for improvement in terms of salary. In November, CBS reported that women still earn less than men. This also applies after correction for, for example, level of education, work experience and job level. The difference decreased slightly every year between 2008 and 2020.
In 2020, women earned about 6 percent less than men in the business sector after adjustment. Within the government it was about 3 percent.
Volg vrouwenrechten
Catching up with Iceland and Norway
The ranking of inequality between women and men is published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The more than 140 participating countries have already submitted the data for the upcoming ranking. Volberda does not know whether the new Dutch policy this year will already result in a jump on the list.
The Netherlands was in the most recent list in 28th place. That was well below neighboring countries Belgium (fourteenth place) and Germany (tenth). “It just rippled on,” says Volberda. “We have fluctuated between twenty and thirty in recent years.” But he does think that our country will catch up with the front runners Iceland and Norway more quickly in the coming years.