Working part-time: (not) a problem?

Original title: Deeltijd (g)een probleem. Three-quarters of working women in the Netherlands work part-time. More than half these women are in small part-time jobs (less than 25 hours per week). The government wants to raise the average working hours of women. A key question is then how much scope there is for women to increase their working hours. This report explores this issue from three angles. First it looks at the role played by employers in increasing the working hours of women and at the opportunities and obstacles in this regard. Second, women in small part-time jobs were surveyed to ascertain their willingness to increase their working hours and the efforts they make to achieve this, and how this could be encouraged. As the opportunities for women to work more are determined partly by the division of tasks with their partner (where present), we also looked at how willing men with full-time jobs would be to change their working patterns, for example by reducing their working hours or by changing their working times and working more from home. The findings suggest that there are possibilities for increasing women's working hours, but also that this is something that will probably not happen by itself