Five days in not enough. Not if you want to visit friends, family and take part in a conference. I’ve spent the past five in the Netherlands being back for the first time in 9 months. It was great and much too short. I’m sorry I missed so many of you and I promise I’ll be back shortly!
It is strange how you can feel about a country and its inhabitants. Sitting on a train between Eindhoven and the Hague I thought to myself, this country is overcrowded, full of cars and in the early morning full of stress but still it feels like home. This multicultural country, full of colour and creativity has an energy about it which spreads to people willing to take it in. It is somewhat chaotic and sometimes a bit weird. I cannot explain what makes the Dutch so unique and at times I get annoyed, surprised or challenged but never ever bored!
Creativity and innovation often rises from unexpected situations where people meet and exchange ideas and knowledge. The Netherlands has the largest amount of small businesses in Europe and you can almost feel the entrepreneurship atmosphere. At the same time they have almost the highest amount of part time working women in Europe and there are lots if discussions in regard to the lack of ambition of Dutch women. They do well at school, they are better educated then the men and still they do not reach the higher positions on the labour market.
This was the core challenge discussed at the emancipation conference I visited while in the NL. Naturally one can point out a few things that could increase the possibilities for women in the NL such as better and available childcare, stronger financial incentives to work more etc. but there is a clear difference between Sweden and the NL in how we look at combining work and family life. One of the speakers at the conference was Gertrud Åström – a guru on gender mainstreaming and an inspiration to listen to. With a clear message, backed up with statistics she brings about a message full of wit. She showed that from 1970 to 2007 the amount of women who chose not to have any children at all has stayed on 14 % in Sweden. Women in Sweden, who almost all work fulltime do not feel that there is a need to chose between a career and having a family. Actually the opposite has happened. Women are financially independent in Sweden, (which only 38 % are in the NL) they work full time and they have more children then the average European. There is a correlation between financial independence and having more children, which I find really interesting! If we want to do something with the birth rates in Europe we need to use the capacity of women and have a law system, which gives women their financial independence. This is not the case in many countries such as in the NL where a couple is taxed as one unit. As long as women do not have control over their own income and their own pension we will stay unequal!
My trip to the NL also included seeing some good friends and enjoying the Dutch hospitality! We hope to see you here soon! It was a dual feeling returning back to Ulricehamn and Sweden but the beautiful layer of snow and the kids enjoyment of it made returning a bit easier. I live in a beautiful place that offers a lot and luckily the Netherlands is not very far away. It is time for the kids to go to bed and I will get my head out the door and shout to them that its time to come in. They can spend hours in the snow!!!
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