So, unlike countries such as Britain, Germany & US, it didn’t require its men to get enlisted in the armed forces compulsorily.
Since men were not away fighting wars, women were not required to join the labour force.
Also, the Netherlands has primarily been governed by political parties inclined towards traditional Christian values.
These values favour society to develop conditions supporting work in the home.
So, women were encouraged to stay at home, and the state provided welfare payments for smoothly running households.
While this ideology remained in force till the early 1980s, in the background, a feminist movement began developing in 1968.
The movement gained momentum in 1976 with the novel De Schaamte Voorbij.
By the early 1980s, the movement was able to disintegrate the ‘male breadwinner logic’ in favour of incorporating women into the workforce.
Culturally, society was still skewed towards ‘family care’, and part-time work was praised as it upheld Christian values.
The state, therefore, worked closely with corporations to ensure part-time jobs enjoyed legal status similar to that of full-time jobs.
Gradually, however, part-time work was considered disadvantageous to women as they couldn’t exploit their full potential and grow to top positions.
So things changed in the 21st century, and now the government encourages women to join the full-time workforce, yet women continue to like part-time jobs more.
Part-time jobs are also attractive as, unlike many other countries where part-time jobs are usually low-skilled, in the Netherlands, a lot of high-skilled work is done part-time.
In 2018, the part-time workers’ percentage in the Netherlands was 50.1% against the EU average of 19%.
75% of the total working women in the Netherlands worked part-time, while 25% of the total working men worked part-time; these figures for the EU were 31% for women & 9% for men.
