Young women are more likely to work part-time than young men. This difference already arises at the beginning of the career, when there are usually no children yet:63% of women and 30% of men in the 18-25 age group have a part-time job (less than 35 hours a week). This difference increases with age:in the group 31-35 years, 68% of women and 13% of men work part-time. In this age group, childcare does play a role in women working part-time more often. Nowhere else in Europe do young women work so few hours as in the Netherlands and nowhere else are the differences between women and men so great (29 hours compared to 37 hours a week). This is apparent from a study by the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP).
Especially because young women work fewer hours than young men, they earn a lower annual income. Young women are also less likely to be economically independent than men of this age. The difference is greatest in the category 30 to 35 years (67% of women are economically independent compared to 82% of men). (Economic independence means an income from work of at least €920 per month).
Women up to the age of 25 seem to find a job as easily as young men after completing their education. Young women are more likely to work in higher positions than men of the same age because they are more highly educated. For women up to the age of 30 who work for the government, the hourly wage is higher than that of men. In the group of 30 to 35 years there is no difference. In the corporate world, women up to the age of 25 earn a higher hourly wage than men and an equal hourly wage in the 25-30 age group. Women aged 30-35 earn a lower hourly wage than their male colleagues.
Part of the explanation for the differences in working hours between young women and men lies in the education followed. Women more often follow a training course that 'prepares' for a profession or sector in which people more often work part-time, such as in health care. In part, differences in working hours are also related to different work preferences:men attach more value to a good income and career, while women consider it important that they can combine their job with (future) care tasks or hobbies that give them a preference for part-time work. Furthermore, in conversations with starters it emerges that they have the feeling that they have little room to negotiate about the number of hours (but also about the salary, for example). Many entry-level jobs are offered as part-time jobs. Only when they have more experience do young people ask for more hours from their employer. Conversations with young people give the impression that women are less inclined to do this than men.
Young women are less positive about their career prospects than men. This can partly be explained by the fact that they more often work part-time. Part-time work reduces the chances of moving up to higher positions. In conversations, employers indicate that as a possible cause for the unfavorable career prospects of young women, mainly men are employed at the top of their companies. This may make young women less optimistic about their own (future) career.
