Alignment of East and West
In Germany, significantly more mothers are employed
October 2, 2023, 11:17 a.m
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Just 25 years ago, significantly more mothers were employed in the eastern German states than in the western German states. These numbers are now steadily converging and the regional differences are decreasing. The OECD supports this and calls for further measures.
The employment of mothers is becoming more and more similar. From 1997 to 2022, the proportion of working women with underage children rose from 58 to 69 percent across Germany, as the Federal Statistical Office announced. Regional differences have decreased significantly over these 25 years. “The employment rates of mothers in western and northern Germany approached the still higher rates of mothers in eastern and southern Germany,” is the statisticians’ conclusion.
Last year, 66 percent of mothers with children under 18 worked in the western German states (Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland) and 68 percent in northern Germany (Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein). In southern Germany (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg) the employment rate was 70 percent. It is topped by the eastern German federal states (Brandenburg, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia): Here it is 76 percent.
Expansion of childcare as a reason
25 years earlier, the regional differences were even more pronounced: in the western German states in 1997 only half of the women with children under the age of 18 were employed, in northern Germany 55 percent and in southern Germany 60 percent. In East Germany, on the other hand, 69 percent were employed – and thus already in 1997 as many as the national average of the previous year.
One reason for the nationwide increase is likely to be the expansion of childcare, as there is now a legal right to early childhood care. The industrialized nations organization OECD recommends taking further measures to enable women to work longer hours. “To this end, the provision of childcare and early childhood education must be further expanded,” says the OECD. This could also counteract the shortage of skilled workers.