The Federal Minister for Families, Karin Prien (CDU), criticized the low employment rate of women who have young children, stating that current figures reveal that Germany has not yet achieved genuine gender equality. She emphasized that equality is not a mere option but a constitutional mandate that has not been fully fulfilled.
Her criticism was prompted by statistics from the Federal Statistical Office, which showed that only 39.7 percent of women with at least one child under three years old are employed. In sharp contrast, 88.7 percent of fathers with at least one child under three years old are working. Prien noted this clear imbalance, pointing out that while progress is visible, women still shoulder a disproportionately large share of family and caregiving work. This unequal distribution has immediate negative consequences for women’s career trajectories, income, and pension security.
Prien argued that policymakers must act by creating appropriate structural frameworks while also actively promoting a culture of partnership within families. Recognizing that the distribution of caregiving responsibilities has changed slowly over the last decade, she identified multiple causes, including enduring cultural role patterns. Furthermore, she highlighted that existing structural setups and incentive systems have not always provided the correct signals, and the nature of the modern working world plays a central role in this issue.
