Survey study Child and job are difficult to reconcile in Germany

Child and career are hardly compatible for women in Germany
According to a recent survey, the opportunities in Germany to reconcile child and job are much worse than in many other countries. Only about one in five women in this country is confident that a child will not harm their careers.

Germany is very poor in international comparison
Children and careers are difficult to reconcile, according to many women in Germany. As reported by the Reuters news agency, a Thomson Reuters Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation survey published on Tuesday found that German women are more difficult to assess by international comparison. Only the Japanese women are outnumbered. According to the data, 47 percent of the international 9,500 women interviewed expressed confidence that they could have a family without harming their careers. In Germany, however, the share was only 21 percent and 17 percent in Japan. The survey was conducted in the 20 most important industrial and emerging countries (G20).

The reconciliation of work and children is often not given. (Image: Gina Sanders / fotolia.com)

Women in emerging markets most optimistic
According to the survey, women in emerging markets are the most optimistic. 74 percent of Brazilians believe that they can combine child and career, followed by women in Indonesia and South Africa, each with 63 percent. The United States (43 percent) is in the midfield, while the share in France and the UK is 34 percent and 29 percent. According to the World Bank expert Henriette Kolb, women in countries with the highest levels of childcare referrals are more likely to Help their relatives could build. The availability of low-paid domestic workers is another factor.

Traditional family pictures and other reasons
In Germany, on the other hand, missing day-care centers and all-day schools - but also traditional family pictures - are in the way of a career. For some, financial reasons may also play a role. According to an older study, childless female academics earn more. At that time, the HIS Institute for Research on Higher Education had stated that full-time job and family seem difficult to reconcile in practice. In addition, it has been increasingly reported in recent years that more and more mothers suffer from exhaustion and burnout due to the double and triple burden of parenting, household and job. The situation in this country is therefore obviously more difficult than elsewhere. As reported by "Reuters", women in Germany also take longer leave from work than in other European countries and often work part-time thereafter, which rather damages their careers. Of the women surveyed, 37 percent said they feared that children would harm their careers. (Ad)