Netherlands-- It's a Part-Time World

Taking a break in a busy week

I've noticed that a LOT of people here have part time jobs, especially women.  The Netherlands may be unique in this respect.  A high proportion of women work, about 75%, but more than half of those who work do it less than full time.  And this seems to be mostly by choice.  "In the Netherlands, we women like to work part time!" say the college students I've talked with about this.  In the U.S., by comparison about 75% of working women are going at it full time.  The ideal here seems to be 2 or 3 days a week.  Handy for mothers with young children, but even women with no children seem to think part time is swell.  It is swell!  Imagine what that would be like.  Although, from another perspective, I suspect that sometimes it takes a while to get some things done.  ("Well, I don't work Wednesday or Thursday, and Friday is a holiday, so maybe we can talk about it next week...") And though most men work full time, often even they seem to have 2 or 3 part time jobs.  It's not unusual for me to meet a professor at the University here who says something like, "Well, I work here two days, and at University B two days, and I do consulting one day."  I am not quite sure how all of this part time work provides benefits-- but there is national health care, and everyone seems to have plenty of paid holidays and vacation!  And here's the kicker-- Dutch women, according to one study, have significantly lower rates of depression than women in France or Japan.  See the NYT article about it!