Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
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Finally, an important medical development of the 1960s across all Western 
countries was the contraceptive revolution, which gave women control over their 
fertility (Hakim, 2000). It is during this period that the caesura between ‘yes’ and 
‘no’ towards paid work shifted from marriage to motherhood - a moment that 
women could now decide for themselves (Tijdens, 2006). The introduction of the 
pill also decreased family sizes, from an average of 2.3 to 1.75 children per 
women (Bucx, 2011). A two-parent family with two children became the 
cornerstone of Dutch society.  
In the same period, almost all formal Dutch employment barriers for women, 
which had been built in order to protect the breadwinner society, were abolished, 
and the new policies brought in were especially beneficial for female 
employment. Already in 1956, married women no longer needed permission from 
their husbands to sign an employment contract. And in 1957, the ban on married 
women being active as civil servants came to an end. By 1975 there was the law 
for equal pay.
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 In 1979 it became forbidden to dismiss women when they got 
married or became pregnant, and in 1980 the law for equal treatment was 
introduced (Kloek, 2009, p.213).
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 Further support came from the European 
Union, obliging that European countries legislate that women and men to have 
equal access to, and treatment in, the paid labour market. And so although the 
Dutch government was slow to implement all of the requisite changes, by 1985 
most of the formal elements of discrimination between men and women had been 
terminated (Kremer, 2007, p.127). In 1986, married women also received the 
same rights as men to social security, including unemployment benefits and 
entitlement to state pension.  
And yet, at the end of the ‘70s, with the backdrop of increasing 
unemployment rates caused by the second oil crisis, the (legal) emancipation 
process became characterised by a double standard. For example, in the ‘80s, the 
‘double-earner family’ became a swearword and class dilemma in the 
Netherlands (Kremer, 2007). What was to be done with families with a double 
income, while families with no-income existed as well? Consequently, a 
transferable allowance – a bonus for single breadwinners, under which women 
were compensated indirectly for their work at home, with clear negative 
consequences for their economic independence – remained in place. It was not 
until the mid-’90s that the tax system was modernised and the breadwinners-
bonus gradually phased out. Notably, in 2007, 1.1 million people (mostly women) 
still made use of the single-breadwinner support (Merens et al., 2011).  
In 1982, the political promotion of part-time work was formally initiated in 
the so-called Agreement of Wassenaar. In this social pact, labour unions and 
employer organisations reached a consensus about the renovation of the welfare 
state – a necessary move given the high unemployment rate during that period. 
Even though labour unions were initially critical towards part-time work, since 
                                                           
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   Wet Gelijk Loon. 
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Wet Gelijke Behandeling. 

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Chapter 1 - Socio-structural developments in the Netherlands 1945-2012 
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they expected part-time work to compete with full-time work (for example with 
reduced demands on wages and holiday days, as well as no assurance to pay the 
minimum income), a consensus was reached on the freezing of wages and the 
promotion of part-time work, with a view to creating more jobs and stimulating 
female employment (Kremer, 2007, p.172; Plantenga, 1996, p.61-62; Visser and 
Hemerijck, 1997). The agremeent resulted in several special clauses on part-time 
work in general sector agreements between labour and employer unions to 
prevent part-time work from remaining on the margins of the labour market 
(Tijdens, 2006).  
Gradually, throughout the 1980s, part-time employment among married 
women became generally accepted and, especially among higher educated 
couples, shook off the perception of being caused by a failure among men to take 
care of their families (Komter, 1990b, p.57). By 1985, 35 per cent of women were 
active in the labour market (Tijdens, 2006). Contemporaneous with increasing 
female employment rates, a modest Dutch political discussion was initiated on the 
subject of appropriate professional childcare. Women from social democratic and 
communist backgrounds became strong advocates for public childcare. 
Nevertheless, female Dutch opponents still argued that childcare was only in the 
interests of women who wanted to work, and would be contrary to the interests of 
their children (Kremer, 2007, p.171). Generally, it was viewed it was in society’s 
best interests that children be raised in a responsible way, which was within the 
realm of familial responsibility, and within which the government played no role 
(Janssens, 2003). As a consequence, no institutional provisions for professional 
childcare were embarked upon, in a period where mothers were starting to 
significantly increase their activity in the labour market.   
In general, despite the post-war developments described above, which clearly 
boosted employment opportunities for women, Dutch society was still 
hierarchically engendered through the persistence of the male breadwinner 
system (Komter, 1990b). The inner obligation to conform to the standard of being 
a good housewife, mother and wife remained, albeit informal and ‘invisible’
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, 
since in the common perceptions of people, formal equality had (almost) been 
achieved (Komter, 1990b). As in other Western countries, there was a time lag 
between the application and ideology of egalitarianism in the abstract with its 
concrete manifestation in everyday domestic life (Haas, 2005; Komter, 1990b, 
p.61; Van Wel and Knijn, 2006). A further observation is that mothers may well 
have feared loss of self-respect, identity and the ideology of romantic love (Haas, 
2005). According to Kane and Sanchez (1994) this gap – that which exists 
between freedom to participate in the labour force and the lack of a corresponding 
                                                           
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  Komter (1990a) distinguished three forms of power: manifest, latent and invisible power.  Within 
manifest power, there are open attempts to change the existing inequalities within power relations, 
which often result in conflict. Within latent power, there is absence of conflict although the 
unequal situation is perceived as undesirable. Invisible power is characterised by accepted norms 
and common-sense ideas, which are seen as natural (self-evident) facts and therefore 
unquestioned, although unequal power relations are present. 

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