On Wed, 2007-08-08 at 09:47 +0100, B. L. Krieger wrote: > i guess you are right here. france for instance made a deliberate choice > after the second world war to recruit women to the labout force, whereas > germany decided for an immigration policy. however whether there is a > correlation is not too sure imho. the uk has reproduction rate comparable > to france without an expensive childcare policy.
i didn't say expensive childcare was important, but social treatment of women which may or may not involve state support. women in germany are treated badly both by society and the state. (e.g. the tax system favours non-working married women; the school system requires a parent to pick up the kid for a mid day meal, so if the mother doesn't do it she's a ravensmutter[1]). women in britain don't get support from childcare the way french women do, but presumably men help more with the housework. british women also do much better professionally than in many countries on continental europe, excluding scandinavia. i don't really understand why the dutch have such a high fertility rate, since while society pretends to be scandinavian it's pretty german actually, right down to the ridiculous school timings (which supposedly will change soon). the result is that dutch women mostly work just a couple of days a week. they seem happy enough - a writer for the highbrow newspaper wonders why [2], commenting on a recent book that says dutch women don't get depressed. otoh dutch society has always been very pro-children. simon schama quotes [3] commentators from the 15th century noting with surprise that dutch children are never beaten and encouraged to voice their opinion. -rishab 1. fig. "bad mother", i was looking for the detailed TIME Europe story that came out a couple of years ago but their search is crap and i only found this: http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_germany_women.htm 2. http://www.duvekot.ca/eliane/archives/001439.html 3. http://www.amazon.com/Embarrassment-Riches-Interpretation-Culture-Golden/dp/0679781242/ref=sr_1_1/103-2180216-6340616?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186776681&sr=8-1
