in germany though where male earnings are widely seen as crucial to securing the income required to have children the likelihood of having a child increases considerably when men earn significantly more than their partners fertility behaviour would then become less dependent on partnered women working parttime in selected occupations and on the traditional household division of labour reconciliation policies those which seek to balance employment and family commitments are thus a critical component of environments that seek to foster higher fertility rates and the more equally balanced participation of men and women in the labour market