German Family Minister Kristina Schröder won’t be happy to read this FAZ-Headline: „Germany will shrink, despite an improved family policy.“
She wants to improve political measures such as guaranteed childcare and parental leave , as incentives to start a family. However, demographers doubt, that these measures will help to increase the birth rate in Germany. Research has shown that the birth rate depends more on the social environment, than on financial incentives. In many parts of Germany a working mother is still seen as a bad mother. It is an „either…or“ mentality. This will take about ten more years to change, sociologist Christian Schmitt assumes.
Demographers call for even more political measures: financial support for parents and a change in the tax-system.
But political measures can only offer the help to change the situation. If German women don’t feel the desire to have children, political measures won’t change anything. Nowadays, women have many options in life. The decision to have children is an individual decision based on mentality, values and the attidue towards life. These factors can hardly be changed by political measures. [DE]
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Posts Tagged ‘family’
Diversity & Inclusion
Recent topic: Family Friendly Companies / Aktuelles Thema: Familienfreundliche Unternehmen
Monday, October 18th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
Although these numbers speak volumes, many companies haven’t fully implemented family friendliness into their corporate culture or don’t communicate their measures to all employees. The communication of family friendly activities is as important as the activities themselves. Networks, for example, can help to promote a measure. Companies also shouldn’t promise too much and only offer measures they can actually implement.
It is a fact that companies nowadays can’t afford not to be family-friendly. They might lose the most talented and motivated employees. For 77 Percent of all employees missing family-friendliness is a reason to change their job. [DE]
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Best Practices
Exemplary Henkel-project: Care Support / Vorbildliches Henkel Projekt: Care Support
Monday, October 11th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
The reconciliation of family and career is not only a matter of childcare. Many employees take care of elderly or sick family members. Often, concerned people feel left alone with this burden. Also a couple of Henkel-employees struggled with the amount of time and attention, their dependant family members require.
To support concerned employees, the project „Care Support“ was started in September last year. In regular meetings, employees and retirees with dependant family members meet to share experiences and get advice. Regina Neumann-Busies of the Social Services department moderates these meetings together with Gabriele Eggert, who provides Social Service to Henkel retirees. After one year, they see very positive results. The participating employees support each other and learn how to reconcile their job and family care.
Care Support is a unique and exemplary project in Germany and creates broad interest. [DE]
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Women in Business
When women earn the money / Wenn Frauen das Geld verdienen
Monday, August 16th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
The TV-show pursued the questions how couples deal with the situation and how the gender roles are being re-defined. Three different couples were introduced, all of them with a different background. Two of the three men lost their jobs, whereby their wives became the sole earners. The men didn’t feel very comfortable about their situations and suffered from self-doubt. However, it is another situation, if both have a job but the woman earns more money. This was the case for the third couple. The man who stays at home and takes care of the children said: I have never felt better in my life. The TV-show demonstrated that there is a new generation of men, who enjoy staying at home and taking care of the children without feeling unmanly.[DE]
Best Practices, Diversity & Inclusion
New form of apprenticeship helps young parents / Neue Ausbildungsform hilft jungen Eltern
Thursday, July 29th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
The Deutsche Welle in Bonn was one of the first companies to introduce a new form of apprenticeships: the part-time apprenticeship for young parents. A part-time apprenticeship allows young parents to finish an apprenticeship and still take care of their children. The part-time apprentices work less hours per week. However, it is still possible for them to finish the apprenticeship within the regular time.
The part-time apprenticeship is being supported by the Modus project, an initiative of the chamber of commerce and industry Bonn/Rhein-Sieg. Each year the project helps 12 – 16 young parents to find an apprenticeship at a family-friendly company.
The project recently won the second prize of the “Hidden Movers Award 2010”, a nation-wide award presented by Deloitte.
The demand for part-time apprenticeships is high and the apprentices are highly motivated. But only few companies offer this type of apprenticeship. The Network for part-time Apprenticeships lists initiatives in Germany that help young parents to find an apprenticeship. [DE]
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Best Practices
Salary report by the magazine Wirtschaftswoche and Personalmarkt Services / Gehaltstest der Wirtschaftswoche und der Vergütungsberatung Personalmarkt
Thursday, March 25th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
The magazine Wirtschaftswoche and Personalmarkt Services compared the salaries of 470 careers and positions. The results are mainly negative. The salaries of top-managers increase while those of university graduates constantly decrease. The gap between women and men still exists and the net income of German employees decreased in 2009. Positive news is, that the old principle “who stays the longest at the company earns the most” no longer exists. Performance is the determining factor for a rise in salary and specialists can expect pay raises up to 5 percent. [DE]
Women in Business
Do women have a „superwoman complex“ / Haben Frauen einen „Superwoman Komplex“?
Monday, March 22nd, 2010 by Astrid BostenFor years, women fought for the equality of women and men. Many improvements have been made, others, for example equal payments, are still to come. Did the fight for equality lead to a superwoman complex? A superwoman complex is the constant need of women to prove that their as good, or even better, then men. For their career this competitive behavior can be beneficial. But often this behavior spills over into the private lives of women. [DE]
Women in Business
Die Pausen-Frauen/ The Interval Ladies
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 by Astrid Bosten 
A few weeks ago we blogged about a report released by the German Institute for Economic Research. The result of the report is that only 2.5% of all board members are women. Last weekend the German Newspaper FAZ published an article that questions these results. The article, written by a woman, says the problem was not that women have difficulties breaking through all-men-networks. The problems were the women themselves…[DE]
