Women's Rights in NL

[EBearhug]

Hi,

Does anyone have any links to women's rights in the Netherlands? Particularly work-related, things like equal pay, maternity rights.

I had a conversation with a Dutch manager today, and I don't agree with some most of the things he said, but before I leap off into feminisim 101 with him, I wanted to try and find out about differences that could explain some of his thinking. For example, he said he would normally avoid employing a woman because of the risk of pregnancy, and seemed surprised when I said that would be illegal in Britain (without pointing out that it still goes on, because any recruiter who is that determined will find legitimate reasons to justify their decision.) I assumed that this sort of thing would be Europe-wide, but if it isn't, that may explain (though not excuse) some of his attitude.

My Dutch is mostly non-existent, so although I can sometimes muddle through and get the gist of written Dutch, English links are preferable for me.

I have found this from 3 years ago.

Does anyone have more details on this: "In 2000, a law was passed mandating that women have the right to cut back hours at their jobs without repercussions from employers."?

Is this connected to parenthood? If not, how come men don't have the same right? Actually, if being a parent was a requirement for it, how come men don't have the same right?

I thought women's rights in the Netherlands were particularly good. Certainly maternity care is amazing (they get a midwife HOME! for TEN DAYS!)

not sure if this is a particularly good source but it chimes with what I thought was the situation.

It really sounds like he is just being sexist and trying to avoid having to give rights, rather than there being no rights to give, iyswim.

The home midwife thing is brilliant... but their entitlement to maternity leave is only 13 weeks, 4 of which have to be taken before the EDD.

I will check this evening with friends who live and work in the Netherlands, but at a guess I'd say your boss is talking out of his posterior. I think discrimination on the grounds of gender is illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights, which I'm pretty sure the Netherlands is a signatory to.

Don't think it would be the ECHR but as an EU country the Netherlands will be obliged to prohibit discrimination to basically the same list we do, including sex and pregnancy.

I thought he might be talking rubbish, but I then realised I was making assumptions, rather than actually knowing the facts, and if he is likely to have different cultural expectations, I'm prepared to be a little more forgiving than if he's just being a sexist arse. Either way, he needs some education.

You know what EBearHug, it doesn't matter if the Netherlands doesn't have legislation to stop sexual discrimination. He just shouldn't be doing it. It is misogynistic and unfair.

Oh, I agree he should just stop, but my instinctive reaction was, how can anyone in the EU in 2013 think that's okay? But I am coming from my background, and his could be very different - I realise there's a lot I don't know about NL and other European countries, because I assume they are probably similar without knowing it.

We work in IT, and the fact there aren't any women in our department in NL doesn't mean much, because we've got about 40 spread across about 7 countries, and I am the only woman. Maybe it's time to send him a copy of [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0470597194 Gender Codes]].

Other EU countries should be similar in all underlying principles of discrimination/equality as those are set out in EU law. Where they can differ a lot is how they implement the details. For example length of mat leave and level of mat pay.

Other areas, like redundancy and dismissal protection, can vary hugely as they have all developed independently in each country.

Not employing a woman because she is or might become pregnant is illegal in the Netherlands. It is based in sexual discrimination legislation, because only women become pregnant. There are plenty of battles surrounding it left to be won, Good link but in Dutch, not sure if it'll still makes sense once you run it through google translate but your boss is thankfully talking out of his arse here.

Thank you all, for confirming what I suspected.

Ok, so I am feeling a bit bad, because it turns out I misunderstood what he was saying- although I am actually glad about that, because I had been feeling rather let down and disappointed that he wasn't the person I thought he was. Although he was being honest in admitting he might be wary of employing a woman of childbearing age. I should ask what he thought about our male Swedish colleague who took a year's parental leave.

But it's still interesting learning how things are similar or not in other countries, so I am still glad I asked.