Half of the Netherlands works part-time and they’re one of the happiest countries in the world

No matter which metrics you use, the Dutch consistently rank as one of the happiest countries in the world.

They’re open-minded, they’re laid-back and they’re generally a positive bunch.

They also have the highest number of part-time workers of any wealthy country. The Economist reports that 26.8 percent of Dutch men and 76.6 percent of Dutch women of working age spend less than 36 hours a week working.

Compare that to the UK, where just over 10 percent of men and around 40 percent of women work part-time.

Dutch women seem perfectly happy playing a smaller role in the labour market (Picture: Getty Images)

There are a number of factors explaining this Dutch phenomenon. Women coming late to the labour market is one reason, and the dominance of Christian values in Dutch politics made it a cultural norm for those women to work part-time so they could still fulfill traditional family roles.

That may sound backward to some, but, as Slate reports, Dutch women ‘could be considered extremely progressive when compared with most other women in the world’.

Political participation and reproductive rights are extremely high. The huge pay gap is understood as a consequence of the number of women working part-time rather than gender discrimination.

‘In 2000, a law was passed mandating that women have the right to cut back hours at their jobs without repercussions from employers,’ Slate reports.

Dutch women fought for the right to cut back hours at work without repercussions (Picture: Getty Images)

So would Dutch women prefer to play a bigger role in the labour market? Apparently not.

‘We look at the world of management – and it is a man’s world – and we think, oh I could do that if I wanted,’ Maaike van Lunberg, an editor at De Stentor newspaper, told Slate.

‘But I’d rather enjoy my life.’

We can’t argue with that.