Unorthodox as the mix may be, Hewitt’s twin briefs reflect Europe’s emerging demographic challenge. The problem is a triple whammy: falling birthrates, an aging and shrinking work force, a looming pension crisis. The solution is to get more people working while producing more babies for the future. Can Europe do both?
To its credit, the European Union sees the issues clearly. For years it has placed a premium on boosting women’s employment, in the interests of both gender equality–what it calls a “fairer distribution of men’s and women’s roles”–and the need to deal with the demographic crisis. Trouble is, the policies of its national governments often thwart that goal. From Germany and Austria to much of southern Europe, traditions of working daddies and stay-at-home mommies still dominate. Tax and social programs often discourage women from working. So does the comparative scarcity of flex time and day care. European women have grown skeptical that they can juggle both work and babies, with obvious consequences. If Europe succeeds in putting more women to work, only to see births fall, then it will fail in its broader effort to avert a demographic disaster.
The picture isn’t uniformly dark. Britain now allows parents of young children to negotiate flexible hours with employers. The Dutch have pioneered a national flex-time policy. Greece is pumping millions into creating day-care services, and recently France launched a new pro-family program that would award monthly stipends of 160 euros to parents with children under 3, as well as pay 800 euros to every woman in her seventh month of pregnancy. Indeed, France’s commitment to la famille may be a model. In recent years it has produced both Europe’s highest rate of working mothers–and a baby boom.
The situation in Germany is starkly different. There working mothers are often dubbed “raven mothers” for abandoning the family nest. Government policy actively discourages women from rejoining the work force after giving birth: second incomes are taxed in the highest bracket, public health care is free for home-based mothers, and if both parents work they pay hefty premiums. In Italy, where cultural expectations are similar, there are also few part-time jobs or day-care services. According to Daniela Del Boca, a demographer at the University of Turin, “Italian women’s response has been to give up having children.” Spain recently started giving 100 euros to working mothers with young children to encourage them to stay on the job, but that hardly seems much of an incentive.
For European governments committed to reform, the toughest task will be helping parents without deepening the economic divide between men and women. Flex time and part-time jobs tend to be less-skilled, lower-paid positions, which often means that working mothers must downscale their career aspirations in order to manage their schedules. Europe’s industries lose talent–and its women lose money, prestige and, in old age, a big chunk of pension income. The bottom line: without change, Europe’s career women will remain skittish about starting families. And those who do will wonder why they should bother venturing out into the workplace afterward. Catch-22. It’s the European way.
With Tracy McNicoll, Barbie Nadeau, Stefan Theil and Emily Flynn
