When women have careers and children, they are doubly contributing to their nation's pension system--fattening today's retirement coffers with tax payments and bearing the next generation of workers, who'll carry tomorrow's pensioners.
A research report by London-based Goldman Sachs' economist Kevin Daly, concludes that developed countries don't have to choose between babies and women in the workforce. In fact, in countries where women have the most babies, they also come closest to men in their rate of employment. Daly attributes this to cultural norms and government policies that make it possible for women to have both families and careers.
Among the developed countries in the study, Scandinavia ranked highest in working motherhood, while Europe's Mediterranean countries came in last. American women resemble their Scandinavian sisters, although they work a bit less and procreate more.
Women in the U.S. have the highest fertility rate of any major developed country, with 2.05 children each. They trail U.S. men by about 12 percentage points in employment rates. Swedish women, by comparison, have just a 5 percentage point gender gap with men. The job gap in U.S. could be narrowed, Daly says, by ending tax discrimination against second earners and by subsidizing child care. "We simply argue that couples should have the freedom to choose [what] suits them. And surveys [in developed countries] suggest more couples want both partners to be in paid employment than is the case currently."
Source: BusinessWeek, April 30, 2007