Getting married is wonderful. So is having kids. But too often, women pull the short straw – Petra von Strombeck, CEO at New Work SE, has seen this happen time and time again.
“Young women often make these decisions without thinking about the long-term impact on their career and their financial independence,” she says in our latest podcast. The Ministry of Labour’s statistics speak for themselves: 80% of part-time workers are women. “Obviously it’s because they still do most of the care work,” she says.
The consequence? “38% of women in Germany are heading for a pension of less than €1000. You’re in a long-term relationship, everything looks fine, but if you look at the divorce rates, there’s a 50-50 chance that it will break up. How do you get back to a job where you earn a decent living, and compensate financially for what you lacked in the last years?”
She offers up plenty of solutions, which I’ve broken down into three main hacks that I want to share with you here:
Protect your financial independence. Work out how much parental leave, going part-time, passing up that promotion will cost you long-term, bearing in mind that every missed career step or reduction in hours will also reduce your savings and pension further down the line. Then take steps to minimise that cost, starting with making clear choices when you’re starting out as a family. Talk to your partner, “and negotiate in a contract how you will handle a divorce or separation. It’s not romantic, but it’s a bare necessity. A marriage is a contract, and has a lot of financial consequences. And you are all business women, you negotiate contracts every day!”
Be creative about solving the care work issue. It’s about more than just innovative fluid work models (tandem, part-time etc) – it’s about sharing the work at home too. “Is there a solution where both partners work 75% rather than one 50% and one 100%?” asks Petra. Team up with neighbours, get relatives involved, hire a nanny – put solutions in place that don’t leave the mental load and associated work on your shoulders.
Have the courage to ask for that promotion – especially if you’re about to go on parental leave. It could be a win-win for everyone, because your replacement can then stay in that job even after you come back, because you’ll be moving up. AND it means that you don’t have to shelve that dream of moving your career up a notch every time you have a baby.
“Parenting actually increases your skill-set,” Petra says. “So whatever your qualification was, parenting will increase your skill set to make you even more capable of then having that next job.”
Speaker: Petra von Strombeck – CEO @New Work SE
Host: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective
Photo: New Work SE
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