ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationships between labour market participation, citizenship and gender. It focuses on the period up to the Second World War and looks at how the ‘harmony of life and human nature’ was institutionalized. Full citizenship is not equal to labour market participation, but implies participating in both paid and unpaid labour. The chapter provides an overview of how in the post-war period the gendered division of labour and care no longer seemed self-evident and became the subject of debate and resistance. The low rate of participation by married women in the labour market was a priority policy issue. Productivity concerns mainly the Netherlands’ economic history and its degree of relative prosperity. The economic argument is based primarily on the costs incurred by low level participation levels, referring to the unproductive use of human capital.
