News
Farewell to Mutti-Land
August 2006
In Germany the EQUAL National Thematic Network (NTN) on Work-life-Balance
makes a substantial contribution to creating family friendly working conditions
and to overcoming traditional gender roles and stereotypes. EQUAL good practices
are being spread across the country, which has been labelled "Mutti-Land" or
Mummy-Land by a major weekly newspaper because 65% of women leave the labour
market when they become mothers.
The activities of the NTN are fully in line with the
priorities of the German Government that wants to create living and working
conditions enabling women and men to have both a career and a
satisfying
personal life, which would mean that young mothers would be more willing to
remain in employment. In the face of demographic changes and the
dramatically low fertility rates, in particular those of women university
graduates, reconciliation has become one of the hot issues that is being
discussed both in the political arena and by the public-at-large. The Government
has launched a whole package of measures to tackle the continuing lack of
flexible, good quality childcare in the western Federal States and to combat
prejudices and stereotypes about working mothers. The package aims to promote
local and regional alliances for work-life-balance, to convince employers of the
business advantages of family-friendly personnel policies and to increase both
the quantity and quality of childcare. Moreover, by 2007, the system of German
parental leave[1]
will be transformed in a way that is more likely to attract men to discovering
the joys and responsibilities of fatherhood. Approaches and products that have
been successfully tested by EQUAL first Round Development Partnerships (DP) and
the first NTN on Work-life-Balance have informed this process of change.
Building on these prior achievements, a new,
second Round network was formed. From the beginning, it has been split into two
working groups, each focusing on a crucial aspect of reconciliation policies.
Making reconciliation an asset for quality management
This NTN working group is entirely dedicated to integrating the issue of
work-life-balance for women and men into existing systems of quality management.
The group has agreed to move beyond the gender equality labels and awards that
have been established over the last decade and to work exclusively on turning
reconciliation-oriented policies into a quality standard in the context of
organisational development. To this end, the NTN is targeting the European
Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) since the group members feel that its
approach of enabling extensive quality control and comprehensive management
systems is the most suitable for their task. As a first step, they have secured
the support of one of the most experienced EFQM experts in the country, who is
also a co-founder of the distinguished Ludwig-Erhard-Preis award for German
enterprises that excel in quality management. He is helping the NTN to develop
new categories and criteria that would enable a work-life-balance model to be
integrated into the EFQM system. At the NTN's next meeting in December 2006,
this proposal will be presented to, and discussed with, the EFQM director for
Germany. A final text will then be provided to the German EFQM Headquarters at
the beginning of 2007, so that new criteria involving the reconciliation of work
and private life can be incorporated into its quality management structure.
A big bang to cover work-life-balance in the media
Conceiving creative ideas to promote
work-life-balance in the media is the focus of the second working group. The
idea is to organise a national competition targeting advertising and marketing
agencies and stimulating them to come up with messages that capture the most
crucial aspects of reconciliation whilst presenting new solutions for both women
and men. In the autumn of 2006, the design will be completed and the competition
will be launched, so that a high level jury can select the best of the competing
proposals at the beginning of 2007. Under the motto "Dare to take the adventure
of reconciliation" these will be presented at a visibility event in Berlin and
then used to kick off a national debate about the issue.
The intended big bang in the German media
was inspired by the Dutch "Journey along cultures" DP whose successful campaign
included commercials on TV and on radio, press conferences, the DP's Internet
site (www.wiedoetwat.nl) and a series of
talk shows. Under the title "Men
taking the Lead" this first round EQUAL project managed to encourage men
throughout the country to initiate a dialogue on the equal division of family
tasks with their partners and also with their employers, colleagues and friends.
Further assistance from the project has resulted in many men making "role
sharing agreements" with their partners and/or employers.
A virtual guide to better reconciliation
The most important achievement of the first
generation NTN is a well-used website. It is a virtual guide for parents and
other people with care responsibilities, and also for employers, social partners
and local policy makers who intend to make a difference in the lives of all
those who have to juggle the conflicting pressures of work and family tasks.
The
virtual guide contains a wealth of information on relevant legislation and
family financial support provided by the state, with a special emphasis on
parental leave.
Companies can find plenty of business cases including the hard facts and figures
that prove how family friendly personnel policies can help them to save as much
as several hundred thousand euro in reduced costs. Model calculations based on
the loss incurred through staff turn-over and absenteeism on the one hand, and
on the cost of introducing a family package of counselling for parents,
individualised flexi-time, tele-work and childcare on the other, demonstrate an
average return on the investment of at least 25%.
In addition, examples of good practice are presented in
great detail on the site, as are studies, brochures and interactive tools for
awareness raising and training, many of them developed by EQUAL DPs. Users can
also choose from a number of products designed to trigger attitudinal changes
including media campaigns, TV spots and cartoons. Quotes from "normal people"
and VIPs illustrate the impact of both the lack and the development of a more
satisfying work-life-balance and indicate that even top level career women have
a hard time getting to grips with the dilemma of reconciliation. Jutta Limbach
for instance, the former President of Germany's Constitutional Court admitted
that "I had feelings of guilt - like all gainfully employed mothers," and
said that her husband helped her get rid of those feelings by explaining that
"if you feel guilty as the mother, so should I as the father".
[1] The current parental leave system in Germany
grants leave with an accompanying guarantee, which lasts for three years,
of continued employment. An allocation of between 300 and 450 euro,
depending on the length of the career break, is paid only to parents
with an income below 30.000 euro. Whilst the maximum of three years'
absence for childrearing stays untouched, a new solution called "Elterngeld" provides for a one year financial allocation which amounts
to two thirds of the lost income of the partner taking the "family
break". If men decide to share this with their female partners they will
be entitled to two extra months of paid leave.
