Perspektive Wiedereinstieg - Beruf & Familie gGmbH

Women plan for and develop strategies for re­entering only after their children have grown up
to some extent and have become rather independent. Financial motives are playing a relevant
role mostly for women bringing up a child without a partner. However, the most important
reasons for a re­entry are a lack of social recognition of family work, the feeling of not being
challenged and wishes for social contacts, higher financial independency and individual fulfillment.
The process of labor market re-entry is complex and there are many obstacles. Personally interviewed
women are very satisfied with the support and attendance they received by the project
providers during this process. Continuing education is partly used to make alignments as
women of this mostly older generation did not always have the opportunity to learn the necessary
skills for the occupation they actually desired. Qualification periods are used as a “probationary
period” in order to adapt themselves and their families to a new daily rhythm. After a
long employment break, women who want to re­enter into the labor market have a high
demand for updating their professional knowledge and competences, which could not always
be satisfied. But there are also further barriers that even highly educated interviewed women
face: in some regions or job segments it is difficult to get a job offer again. Because of family
duties, women are often not mobile and not flexible in regard of their working hours. During a
long withdrawal from the labor market, women’s professional self­confidence often decreases.
Intensive counseling and exchanges with other mothers help the women to develop self­confidence
and to apply for adequate jobs.
Partners do not always offer some relief regarding family tasks. Family support services as a
further opportunity of relief are only at marginal relevance. For women providing health care
for family members, it is even more difficult to re­enter into the labor market than for women
providing child care. Amongst others, the reasons for this are time restrictions as well as a
higher load of mental and physical stress.
Half of the 30 personally interviewed persons had not taken up an employment again at the
time of the interview. Reasons for this are ongoing qualifications, illnesses but also conscious
decisions for (exclusive) family work instead of an early re­entry on the part of some of the
women participating in the model program.
If the women have taken up an employment by the time of the interview they positively comment
on their re­entry; they enjoy working and earning money themselves and it strengthens
their self­confidence. They scarcely reported problems of reconciling family and work. Reasons
for this are that children have already grown up to some extent and that most women
have chosen part­time job offers which are easier to reconcile with their family tasks. Hence
only a limited number of aftercares were provided by project providers in the qualitative sample.
Working hours far from full­time employment partly are considered only as a first step
into the labor market and as a transition period; in the medium term some women wish to
raise working hours or to switch from marginal to part­time employment. However, some
interviewees do not consider shifting to a full­time job in the longer term since family is their
top priority, or they want to utilize their time for voluntary work or for themselves. In order to
be able to work part­time some women take up jobs which are formally below their qualification
level; a number of women hopes to switch into an adequate occupation later.