Source: The Local
German women have on average 1.3 children, among the lowest rate in the industrialised world, resulting in a shrinking and ageing population that threatens long-term finances and the ability of companies to find workers.
However Family Minister Kristina Schröder does not see the government’s annual €200 billion family policy as a failure.
“I am sceptical about the capacity for politics to manage families,” she told reporters Thursday, adding that in terms of encouraging women to have more babies “my ambitions are modest.”
However Germany’s policies have often been criticised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Europe for hindering women being able to combine work and motherhood.
And the chancellor herself, who is childless, has highlighted several times that Germany’s family policy is wanting compared to that of neighbouring France for example.
Michaela Kreyenfeld, of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, said Germany’s family policy “lacks coherence”.
“Certain mechanisms support women who work, others encourage them to stay at home, for instance,” she said.