Would You Rather Have Educated Women or Stay-At-Home Moms?

If you think you can have both, good - you're in America.  But all economies don't support that.

Last week I was wringing my hands wondering if it was possible that Europeans work as hard as Americans.  Could it be true that once you factor in "work" that isn't compensated on the home front, Germans are working as hard as Americans? 

The theory Geoff Colvin explores in the article is that the service sector in Germany is far less developed, meaning Germans are much more likely to prepare food at home rather than buy it from Applebee's or Taco Bell.  That means the Germans may work fewer hours, but are working harder on the home front to get the family what is needed. 

In short, we work longer hours, then buy what we need.  The Germans work fewer hours, but have limited outlets to buy services, so they're working at home. 

Here's another snippet I wanted to explore a little bit from the same Fortune article by Colvin. 

"Now carry the analysis a step further. The difference between Germans and Americans in work profiles is much greater for women than men. American women are far more likely to hold paid jobs than German women, and those who do are far more likely to earn higher pay.

Each nation's economy supports those patterns. In America it's easy to buy prepared meals, child care, and such, so it's "easy for educated women to work in the market," as Freeman and Schettkat observe, whereas in Germany, "the lack of such alternatives makes full-time employment of women difficult." Thus, German women have far weaker incentives to go to college. In the U.S., 22% of working-age women hold bachelor's degrees, but in Germany only 11% do.

Bottom line, each economy runs according to powerful internal logic. Freeman and Schettkat sum up: "By working long hours and taking short vacations, Americans earn money to buy goods in the market. By working fewer hours and taking long vacations, Germans have more time to produce goods at home."

Colvin's analysis of this is that the American model may be better, since the German model means higher unemployment (via fewer service sector jobs) and undereducated women.  It's easy to say the German model isn't missing anything by having fewer service sector jobs, but as the article points out, those are valuable "gateway jobs" to bigger and better things for enterprising youth and adults alike. 

The bigger question for me is the education stat on women.  Is it better to have a service economy resulting in higher education levels for women, or to have no service economy and have women who are undereducated in respect to their peer countries, but at home with the kids?

I'm from a family of working moms, so my vote automatically says the American model is better.  Of course, there are strong arguments to be made for the benefits of having a Mom at home through a kid's formative years.

At the end of the day, I'm voting for more education as being the best path for the mom, the family and the country. I'm also voting for women getting the education as part of a society that encourages that, then allowing them to make life choices (stay at home) as part of a cost-benefit analysis performed by the family. 

Your thoughts?   We still work harder than France, right?

Comments

[Dan]

Definitely educated:
1. If my wife wasn't educated she couldn't proofread my blog
2. My wife is a stay at home mom and is MUCH smarter than me on child development. SHe worked hard at it and read everything she could about it. Hopefully this will cause my son to NOT be an axe murderer.
3. While there is a certain amount of dependence in our relationship it is not based on the fact that she COULD NOT support herself without me....it is based on the fact that I like to snuggle :)

[HR Minion]

I'm going with better educated. A better educated populace is better able to participate and contribute to their countries stability and growth. And the more educated a countries women are the higher their quality of life is as well.

[Wally Bock]

I have a strong bias here, but I want more education. In an economy where much competitive advantage derives from brain power, I want all the brains we can get in the best shape and in the game.