Not just mothers with small children but also young childless women in the Netherlands tend to work fewer than 35 hours a week, says the government’s social policy unit SCP in a new report on part-time working.

In total, 75% of Dutch women who work have jobs of fewer than 35 hours a week – twice the European average.
Compared with other western countries, many Dutch women do work, the SCP says. Around two-thirds have some sort of paid employment. Only in Scandinavia and Switzerland is the percentage higher.
And three-quarters of Dutch women with young children work, compared with just 45% of German mothers, the SCP says.