most european states systematically keep women out of workforce by not having a full day school system. kids are home at noon, every kid has a different afternoon schedule. lunch/afternoon care is expensive. working only makes sense, if after tax you make more than care costs.

depending on tax bracket, care cost reduction applicable, amount of kids, you can actually make a net loss by going to work. and that is something rarely talked about or considered when other services are praised in europe.

in addition, in switzerland the vast majority of people live in flats, not houses. own washing machines aren’t always a possibility or even allowed. so you‘ll have a few hours a week allotted to shared washing machines. if you’re not home during that time...you can’t wash.

washing before 7am or after 10pm or on a sundy isn’t allowed by law. sometimes the machines simply won’t work out of hours, power turned off. it forces families to make sure someone is home to do the laundry at specific times.

it’s completely impossible to do the laundry of a 5 people household while both are working if assigned wash hours from 2pm to 10pm once a week, if you come home at 5:30pm and are left with 4.5 hours.

laundry services are expensive and hiring someone to clean/do your laundry at home easily costs 25 franks an hour and up. so you‘d have to pay for childcare and a person to do your laundry and still need to make more than all those services costs you.

have i mentioned yet that all stores are closed after 7pm and on sundays? if you need any groceries on a sunday, you’ll have to go to the next train station, where small stores are open on a sunday or find even smaller and rare family run stores with a special permit. fun innit?