New figures from a survey by Statistics Netherlands show that there are more and more women who continue to work as many hours after the birth of their first child as they did before the birth. Mothers thus contribute an increasingly important part to the family income than they did years ago. And that's great, because as you know, I'm a big proponent of financial independence for women.
64,000 couples took part in this survey, which shows that in 2005 the participating women contributed 33% to the family income and in 2013 this was no less than 38%. Fewer women also appear to stop working completely after the birth of their first child and maternity leave. Yet about 40% of women who become mothers for the first time decide to reduce their working hours or stop working altogether.
I find it surprising that the new fathers just continue to work an average of 40 hours a week after the birth of their first child. I myself thought that it is becoming more common these days to work fewer hours as a father. This is to remain more involved in the upbringing of their child and the division of household tasks after paternity leave. But apparently I was wrong about that.
Financial independence is not the main reason for these women to continue working for the same amount of time. Women not only find it important to contribute to the joint household pot, but also want to remain part of the labor market. Continuing to develop themselves and many of these young mothers also think they will be a nicer mother if they can just keep working. I can fully confirm the latter for myself 😉 , but that is of course different for everyone.
