Working hours: women shut down

Women's working time: Less full-time jobs

Women on the decline: At least during working hours, more and more employees are getting shorter. A recent study by the Hans Böckler Foundation shows that the number of women working 36 to 39 hours per week has halved: while their share among female employees was 34.2 per cent in 1991, in 2010 it was only 15.6 per cent , The proportion of women working 40 hours or more per week remained more or less constant at about one third.

By contrast, the number of jobs has risen sharply to 30 hours per week or less - and the proportion of working hours of 15 hours per week or less has more than doubled, from 6 per cent in 1991 to 14 per cent in 2010.

Why do women work fewer hours than before? The reasons are many. Of course, it is often attractive for employers to place cheap mini-jobs and save on expensive social security. The main reason for many women, but rather the problem is that the child care is often not really compatible with a (full-time) job. A reduction in working hours can then be the only way to compensate for missing care hours and long Kita-Anfahrtswege.

For the career, such a reduction tends to be poison, because it is still much harder to move up from a part-time position than a full-time job. A boss in part-time? Unthinkable in many companies.

On the other hand, the female trend can even be groundbreaking. Prof. Jutta Allmendinger, probably the most influential German sociologist, says in the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde interview: "32 hours are enough." In your opinion, should 32 hours a week the new full time be - for women AND for men. Economically it would cost nothing, Allmendinger said, it would only increase the working hours of women and be reduced by men. Then the 32 hours would be possible for all, and each of us would have more time to educate, raise children, care for parents - or just take a little break.

Here you can read the complete interview with Jutta Allmendinger.

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