Facts and Fairy Tales about Female Labor, Family and Fertility

Nobody really understands Dutch women. They seem lively, well-educated and liberated. And yet—apparently—their participation in the labor market has always been far less than that of women in surrounding and economically comparable countries. Why?

This book offers a wide-ranging and searching inquiry into the issue, relating data and conditions in the Netherlands to those in six other western European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It probes attitudes to the family and motherhood and considers demographic trends and household composition throughout the period. It looks at women's education, their distribution throughout trade and industry, child care provision, and the disincentives and barriers to employment women have faced in the past and may still have today. The writer uses the facts to sift out valid from invalid (theoretical) explanations and relegates a number of them to the realm of the fairy tale.