Towards a new culture of work‐place inclusiveness: the Dutch case

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the work of the Dutch government's “Taskforce Part‐time Plus” set up to stimulate longer working hours for particularly Dutch women holding part‐time jobs of less than 24 h per week, to help counteract a predicted structural shortage of manpower.

Design/methodology/approach

In 2009, the Taskforce commissioned two studies. The first study comprised three surveys, respectively, among: women holding smaller part‐time jobs; full‐time working men; and employers. The second study focused on the relationship between ambition, working hours and gender. A survey of 7,000 male and female labour‐market participants was combined with qualitative data collection, encompassing focus group interviews with 35 male and female part‐time workers and their managers, and three group model building sessions.

Findings

The first study showed that only a small amount of Dutch part‐time working women is willing to work longer hours in the short term. In the second study, the hypothesis that women's lower working hours could be explained by a lack of career ambition was rejected. However, the results showed that women did neither feel challenged, nor supported by their working and household conditions to extend their working hours to realize their ambitions (in the short run).

Originality/value

The paper illustrates that, in the Dutch case and in some contexts, greater equality, diversity and inclusion not only demands support for reduced work‐loads, but rather calls for a new culture in which women's marginal labour‐market participation does not remain unquestioned.

Citation

Peters, P., Bleijenbergh, I. and Poutsma, F. (2010), "Towards a new culture of work‐place inclusiveness: the Dutch case", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 532-533. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151011052807