in sweden one of the most genderequal countries with a strong family support system men s fathers and nonfathers paid work hours are about an hour less than in germany on average and women s mothers and nonmothers paid work hours more than three hours more per week compared to germany if by german men and women aged to emulated the labour market behaviour of swedish men and women in the same age bracket the projected decrease in the german labour force would be slowed and gdp per capita could increase if it is assumed that changes in labour force participation rates or weekly working hours do not affect the labour demand see chapter for a detailed discussion of different scenarios in countries with limited support for reconciling work and family life child birth often implies a significant reduction in family income as at least one partner has to stop or reduce their employment participation in order to care for the new child the number of children in a family has a greater adverse effect on female employment in germany than in many other oecd countries and german women are much more likely to remain childless than women elsewhere chapter