Dare to share: Germany's experience with promoting equal partnership in families

This chapter introduces the background to and issues at stake in promoting equal partnerships in families in Germany. It encourages German policy makers to build on the important reforms of 2007 and 2015 to enable both fathers and mothers to combine work and family commitments, and commends families to “dare to share”. To those ends it places Germany’s experience in an international comparison, and draws from the experience of, for example, France and the Nordic countries, which have longstanding policies to support work-life balance and strengthen gender equality. The chapter begins with an explanation of why and how equal sharing pays: it is good for family well-being, child development, female employment opportunities, fathers’ working hours (Sections 2 and 3) and sustaining fertility rates. Section 4 examines policies to promote partnership, looking both at persistent shortcomings and progress achieved through reform since the mid-2000s. The chapter closes with a set of policy recommendations designed to enable parents to share work and family responsibilities more equally.