National Guidelines in the Netherlands - Emancipation 

"From Women’s Lib to Inalienable Right" - A Contribution to Medium-Term Policy on Emancipation in the Netherlands 2000-2010

This medium-term policy document of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment lays down the policy directions needed to make further progress and sustain the results achieved to date on the objectives of emancipation policy. These are stated to be:

"To create preconditions for a pluriform society in which everyone, regardless of gender, and through interaction with other principles of social organisation (e.g. ethnicity, age, marital status, fitness [to work] and sexual orientation) is given the opportunity to achieve an autonomous existence, and in which men and women can realise equal rights, opportunities, freedoms and (social) responsibilities."

The policy deals with:

• Parental leave.
• Work, Care and Income.
• Power and Decision-making.
• Human Rights and Women.
• The Information Society.
• The Daily Routine.

The policy states that the long-term approach of emancipation policies in the Netherlands are:

"To promote a multiform society in which everyone, regardless of sex or marital status, has the opportunity to build up for him or herself an independent life; a society in which both women and men have equal rights, opportunities, independence and responsibilities."

This central tenet of Dutch policy is known as the "combination model" (also known as the "combination scenario"). The basic approach of this model is that men and women share paid and unpaid work as much as possible on an equal footing, and in combination will be primarily responsible for performing child-raising work. Significantly, this approach requires changes to the status and role of men as well as women. Men and women will not achieve greater equality simply by having women join men in full-time employment, equality will be achieved only if paid work, unpaid care and income are shared equally between men and women.

The combination model is sometimes contrasted against two other models:

• the "breadwinner model" in which one partner is primarily responsible for child rearing and the other is responsible for working to support the family; and,
• a model in which child raising responsibilities are undertaken by paid care providers (a model in which both men and women work full-time and pay for child care is being paid).

An important aspect of the combination model is the expansion child-care and the improvement of leave facilities while at the same time strengthening the position of part-time workers. Other important issues under this policy related to employment are:

• Establishment of alliances between the government, trade and industry and societal organizations. Employers are starting to realize that emancipation and diversity is in their own interest.
• Diversity forms the point of departure for this policy. Current emancipation policy is not aimed primarily at eliminating backlogs, but rather at optimizing the social culture and structure and thus making it possible to make use of the diversity of the population. This would bring men, as well as women, into the target group for the policy in question. Nevertheless, specific policy will remain necessary for certain groups of women.
• The main goal of the Platform for Action of the Fourth UN Women of the World Conference in Beijing: "Mainstreaming the gender perspective before decisions are taken."

Main problems in among men and women and the way society is structured are:

• the way paid work is organized in today's society;
• the culture in industrial organizations;
• the position of women in the labour market;
• various regulations in the social security and tax systems;
• adequate possibilities of contracting out caring tasks to third parties.

Each government department draws up its own emancipation program based on the emancipation policy of the government. To prevent the process of emancipation from coming to a halt, a department's emancipation policy must be completely in line with its other policies. The coordinating minister for emancipation policy (the Minister for Social Affairs and Employment) monitors the progress of emancipation policy and policy mainstreaming so that the interests of both men and women are carefully taken into consideration in all fields of policy. The Directorate for the Coordination of Emancipation Policy gives advice and consults. lt also coordinates and prepares a joint work plan in which each department sets out the activities it pursues in the field of emancipation policy.

Holding prime responsibility for general emancipation policy is the coordinating minister for emancipation policy: the Minister for Social Affairs and Employment. Emancipation policy in its entirety is shaped by several institutions, these are the Directorate for the Coordination of Emancipation Policy, the Equal Treatment Commission.

In order to get more women in executive posts and in trade and industry, campaigns, such as "Toplink" and "Opportunity in in Business", are initiated and facilitated by government.

Several national subsidy schemes have been delegated to the municipal and provincial authorities. Examples are the State Contribution to Emancipation Work and Provincial Women's Liberation Bureau schemes. Many municipal authorities have what is referred to as an emancipation document.

Focus Areas of the policy include employment, care and income; the distribution of paid and unpaid labour; knowledge, training and technology; and, social and political decision-making.

The Daily Program Committee was delegated with the task of drawing up recommendations for combining employment with caring tasks and of coming up with creative suggestions for coordinating working hours, school-times and day-care centre hours, and also the hours of public services and presented its final report in 1998.

A number of instruments have been suggested for development to reduce 'concealed discrimination' including:

• Emancipation effects reports on proposed legislation and regulations, memoranda, plans etc. to analyse their anticipated effect.
• Workshops and course modules in government departments for informing policy officials of the processes and mechanisms of image-forming.
• Research into the social status of black, migrant and refugee women.

The progress of the Emancipation Tasks Action Plan is reported to the parliament every year. Specific themes are addressed each year by emancipation policy (these are set out in the budget of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment). In 1998 these themes were “Human Rights of Women” and “100 Years of Women's Work”. The themes for 1999 were “Five Years after Beijing”, “Caring in the 21st Century” and “The Younger Generation”.

This document refers to the “two track” policy. It contains the following passage under the section on emancipation policy:

"Emancipation policy has for many years involved a great deal more than simply closing the gap between women and men. It now involves changes in the distribution of tasks, an appreciation of tasks and a review of the social status of men and women in the widest sense. Emancipation policy now covers all areas of policy, and this is reflected throughout this coalition document. During its present term in office, the government will take further steps to implement the UN Women’s Convention based on the report by the Groenman Commission. Formal equality between men and women in the Netherlands has made great strides; however, material equality still has a long way to go. The rising proportion of women in the labour process is not yet balanced by a sufficient number of men performing paid care. This is creating the risk of a 'care vacuum'. The proposed expansion of child care facilities, and out-of-school care, will provide a solution to care for children. A proper system of statutory leave provisions is needed to encourage individuals to care for elderly parents and sick family members on a voluntary basis. The government will apply the recent recommendations of the Daily Routine Committee, among others, to resolve difficulties in combining paid work and unpaid care.

The aim is to create an even balance between unpaid care, paid work, social participation and leisure time for both men and women. Government policy will concentrate on eradicating stereotypical images of men and women and of ethnicity both within and outside government, and on encouraging positive image making.

Efforts to encourage more women to enter public administration, industry and commerce and rise to senior posts will be intensified in collaboration with Toplink, Opportunity in Business and the social partners (with a view to breaking through the 'glass ceiling').

The new tax system will provide major opportunities for increased economic self-sufficiency among women.

Special attention will be given within policy to increasing acceptance of emancipation policy among young people; to these individuals, gender equality is often self-evident, at least in theory. In practice, however, they are usually confronted sooner or later with institutional or other obstacles. Specific attention must also be given to the status of girls from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are frequently faced with conflicting patterns of expectation. The role of these girls could be crucial in the creation of social cohesion in a multicultural society. The Co-ordinating State Secretary for

Emancipation policy must therefore continue to play a co-ordinating role. This does not absolve the other ministries from individual responsibility for emancipation policy. The role of the various ministries in implementing policy aimed at integrating or mainstreaming emancipation policy will therefore be encouraged. Each ministry will draft an action plan containing at least three specific tasks relating to the implementation and application of policy which will be carried out during the present government's term in office."