Katy Roewer: Part -time leader fights for equality in the job

Katy Roewer: Part -time leader fights for equality in the job

Hamburg, Deutschland - How does it succeed in reconciling work and family without losing sight of your own career? Katy Roewer knows this challenge too well. She has been working part -time for ten years and has developed a clear strategy to do justice to both her job and her son. In the first five years after the birth of her child, Roewer had a four-day week, which she organized through a free Monday. In the meantime, she designs her working week so that she can spend time with her son on Mondays and Fridays afternoon. This model allows her to maintain the balance between professional and private life and still work more than 80 percent.

Katy Roewer emphasizes that a well thought -out part -time model is essential. For them it is clear: “part -time leadership” requires trust in the employees. Your departure from the full-time model is not only an invitation to other women to do it equally, but also a call not to stop your career through family obligations. "Responsibility for family and household should not only be among women," she explains and clearly in favor of equal rights in partnerships. By resisting her environment, both at work and privately, she was able to create the necessary framework conditions at an early stage and thus gain planning security.

The sometimes invisible hurdles of part -time jobs

But the picture that Katy Roewer conveys could be deceptive: many employees, especially women who work part -time due to children's education or nursing tasks, face serious disadvantages. For example, the income situation for many of these employees has deteriorated and the opportunity to increase the working time share is a real obstacle. Among other things, these facts reveals the city of Hamburg in its current reports. Around 80 percent of part -time employees are women, and they often feel this situation as a career obstacle. Leaving and part -time employment are perceived as great hurdles in terms of development in professional life.

In order to counteract these challenges, politics relies on a new law that obliges departments to actively offer family -friendly working hours, also in teleworking, and thus to ensure better reconciliation of work and family. Including management positions, all jobs should in principle be regarded as part -time. Time is ripe to take a look at not only women, but also men and to support them in family -friendly performances.

the look ahead

Katy Roewer has recognized the signs of the times and lets us share their success in a remarkable point. She too could switch to a full -time contract, but sees many advantages for herself and its environment in the combination of part -time work and family life. The challenges that she faces are not only individual, but also represent a large social picture. It shows that part -time is not an outdated model, but a way for many to be successful in work and at the same time not to neglect the family.

As the current trend at part -time shows, we should all be challenged to break new ground in order to do justice to equality between men and women. Because in the end the responsibility for the family has to rest on many shoulders.

Further information on the topic of part-time employment and its challenges, for example, offer the articles from Haufe and the reports on family-friendly working structures of hamburg.de . Katy Roewer shows us that there is also a place for family in the business world and that every decision should be carefully considered.

The future of the part -time model is only waiting to be taken up by many other leaders.