employment rates for norway supplied by statistics norway on average german mothers would rather their partners worked approximately five hours less per week while fathers would like to see their partners work three hours fewer per week chapter offers a more detailed discussion of german fathers relatively long and german mothers relatively short working hours these different gender preferences hold true for all countries but are more pronounced in germany the netherlands and the united kingdom than for instance in denmark france or sweden where support systems facilitate fathers and mothers to realise working hours in a less constrained manner promoting a better reconciliation of work and family life can deliver a double dividend to the german labour market it will help the german labour market both in the short term as more mothers work andor work longer paid hours and potentially limit the decline of the overall population by promoting higher birth rates