Child, career - and never time
The woman works as a manager at a management consultancy or as a marketing manager at an insurance broker. Your partner is also working. The jobs of both are demanding - but they do not want to give up children. 1200 of these dual career couples were interviewed on their life situation within the framework of the study "Children and careers: the new couples".
The study by the European Academy for Women in Politics and Business, commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation, was designed to find out how these couples manage work and family life - and where they need more support. Looking after the children and the often missing time are the biggest challenge for the double income couples. Almost half of the respondents would like more time for their offspring. Nearly 90 percent would like more time for the partner.
The good news: Both partners know the requirements both at work and at home - and therefore have more understanding for each other. They meet at eye level, which in turn has a stabilizing effect on the partnership.
The most interesting results of the study: What needs to change to better connect job and family?
- The working culture: The majority of interviewees stated that their priority is the presence in the company, not the result. Even if many companies boast flexible working hours: going to the doctor's or child's school in the mornings with a child and working in the evening in the afternoon is unthinkable in many companies.
- The care: Kindergartens and schools are not set to full-time jobs of both partners. Kita places are hard to get and often the opening times are too short and too inflexible. Above all, mobile career couples often do not live close to their parents, which is why they can not support them with childcare. They are often dependent on nanny & Co., the search for skilled workers is tedious and time consuming. Here, well-earning couples have the advantage that they can even afford a nanny - who is financially worse off, this alternative does not have.
- The opening times: While many supermarkets open longer in the evenings, the rigid opening times of doctors and authorities are often an additional hurdle for working couples with children.
The study deliberately confines itself to executives and professionals, arguing that their position could also influence their corporate culture - they can more easily enforce changes that will benefit all parents.
In addition, the target group only has the income required to make this life model possible. The proportion of fathers taking parental leave was well above the national average, namely 15 percent compared to 4 percent at the time of the survey (today there are 10.5 percent nationwide).
