Germany's Family Policy Mess

To mark the beginning of childcare for all of my three kids (the youngest will still be settling in for a few weeks), I restarted a newspaper subscription (Sueddeutsche, my favorite national daily). There was a great editorial piece on Germany's lost family policy chances. A few months ago, I wrote about a new subsidy for children that provides an incentive for women not to return to work. Despite a lot of criticism to this subsidy, and the highest number of female ministers in core cabinet positions for family policy (family, work, social, chancellor), Germany is moving backwards in its policy on providing opportunities for women with children to work. A disincentive to work is not an opportunity to make a choice. It is a restriction of a basic freedom that I expect from any developed country.