The Minister for Families, Karin Prien (CDU), criticized the low employment rate of women with young children. Speaking to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Wednesday editions), she stressed that the goal of gender equality has not yet been reached, arguing that equality is not an optional improvement but a constitutional mandate that has not been fully fulfilled.
Prien’s statement was prompted by data from the Federal Statistical Office, which showed that only 39.7% of women with at least one child under three years old are employed. By contrast, 88.7% of fathers with at least one child under three years old are working.
She expressed concern over this pronounced imbalance, noting that while progress is visible, women continue to assume a disproportionately large share of family and care work. This skew, she pointed out, has immediate negative repercussions on women’s career paths, income, and old-age security.
Prien emphasized that the government must take action to create the appropriate structural conditions for change while simultaneously promoting a culture of partnership within families. She attributed the slow pace of change over the past decade to multiple factors, including ingrained cultural gender roles, flawed existing structures and incentive systems, and the crucial influence of the modern labor market.