Overall assessment

• Author: Vegter, Marlies
• Pages: 82-82

82

12 Overall assessment

The overall impression of the author is that implementation of the EU gender equality

acquis is to a great extent satisfactory. The Netherlands is fifth on the list of happi est

countries in the world and 90 % of the people indicate that they are content with their life,

despite the many complaints that can be heard.

The EU work-life balance requirements will oblige the Dutch legislator to introduce a legal

right to two months paid parental leave. So far this leave is unpaid, unless the social

partners h ave mad e a different agreement. In addition, paternity leave wil l have to be

extended from 5 paid days to 10 paid days. For the rest, the Directive will probably have

no effect on the Dutch situation.

There are points of concern.

A point which returns every year is the position of predominantly female domestic staff

who w ork on four days or f ewer per week in a pri vate household. These workers have

significantly fewer employment and social security rights than other workers. They ma y

be dismissed unilaterally without the permission of employment agencies or the district

courts, they are entitled to 6 weeks’ pay during illness instead of 104 weeks, and they fall

outside the scope of the social security system. This reduced protection has been criticised

by, inter alia, the European Commission and the CEDAW C ommittee, but there i s still n o

political will to tackle the situation.

Another point of concern is the vulnerable employment situati on of pregnant women and

young mothers. This matter has also been troubling for a long time and there d oes not

seem to have been any improvement. On the contrary, the situation has deteriorated,

mainly because of the tremendous increase in flexible working arrangements and work as

a self-employed person in the Netherlands.

The increase in flexible working also leads to precarious employment, especially for people

with lower education levels and people in more basic positions. These include people from

third countries who come to the Netherlands to work temporarily. This is not specifically a

matter of gender inequality, but of c ourse women are also affected by this. Equal pay for

equal work throughout the EU would help greatly, but this i s a complex matter.

A worrying trend in the Netherlands, a s in other countries, is t he ri se – or perhaps one

should say return – of populist movements. During the last elections in the Netherlands a

new populist party, Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy), g ained many votes.

In general, these parties are not positive about women’s rig hts and the Netherlands is no

exception in this respect. The leader of the latest populist party said i n an interview that

because women are so involved in career-making they do not have enough children, he

criticised the right to abortion, said that women do not have ambition and that they want

to be overpowered sexually by men.234 This of course raised a lot of comment,235 but

nevertheless many people are attracted by this party and its leader.

As for positive trends, more and more women do paid work, and the number of women in

leading positions is increasing, although very slowl y. In addition, as said at the beginning

of this paragraph, the vast majority of people in the Netherlands, including women, report

in surveys that they are very content with their life.

234 See inter alia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYDHM3rcZVQ and

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/05/houellebecqs-unfinished-critique-of-liberal-

modernity/#.XOJe0g0yP_c.twitter.

235 See among many more: https://joop.bnnvara.nl/nieuws/baudet-wil-de-vrouw-terug-achter-het-aanrecht-

af-van-abortus-en-euthanasie (‘Baudet wants the women back behind the sink and wants to get rid of

abortion and euthanasia’) and https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/politiek/artikel/4719121/verbazing-en-

woede-over-standpunt-baudet-over-vrouwen-abortus-en (‘Amazement and anger about statements Baudet

about women and about abortion and euthanasia’).