I had a look in the Dutch press and forums about this case.
MP Sharon Dijksma herself started twice an academic study. She didn't finisched one of them . So , she destroyed a lot of capital to .  No punischment is known for this half-high-educated MP.

The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)

This is actually news to me, messy, great find! I've been scanning some news reports about the proposal and some comments from the on-line people. My perspective for now: a hot air balloon.

Once so often Dutch MP just launch an idea and see whether it floats or just get boohed away. I recall a proposal of minister Peijs of Traffic last summer wherein she mused about a ban of all un-attached objects at the back of a car, to avoid making them a target during a violent collision. It got boohed so fast and so loud (what about umbrellas? Or road-books? Or tissue boxes?) I don't think it ever came back...

And I'm with Elco on this: how entirely double faced of her. This is the typical old-school PvdA way of paternalistic thinking and the one I fervently oppose. It's meddlesome government, not good government. That besides, it uses the stick instead of the carrot, which always irritates me. My personal opinion is that people respond better to profitable stimuli, and not to penalising ones.

Most what I read is heavy criticism. People are quoting the Dutch constitution on equality and I feel they've a point.  

I also found some numbers: According to the CBS, the official agency for statistics, about 58 percent of the women (active population!) are now working (part time + full time, I guess). Is that really such a bad number?

Furthermore, the percentage of higher educated women which are unemployed is quoted at about 9.5% (NOS, the public news agency), less than 100.000 in total. And I wonder how many of them are just in their early phase of looking for a suitable job...

Combine that with the fact that Sharon is stuck in the Parliament since 1994 after botching two studies (and probably not eager to leave with a massive PvdA victory projected), and I call this an official boo-boo.

In the U.S., where many students depend on loans to pay for college, you can defer payment for a period of time related to parenting. It's not very long, though: Six months or so.

Actually, I think a "punitive measure" is never a good stimulus. Anything that is punitive is negative. And in order to make people want and do something one should address the issue in positive way.

In this case, I would say, it is a better idea to do just the opposite--give an incentive to well educated women that have kids not to stay at home. For example by offering some preferential services for them--lower the prices of state kindergartens or something like that.    

Who pays for the childcare if the woman goes back to work? If she pays its herself then, in effect, she is still a housewife, just by proxy. If there is state supported childcare then her taxes are paying for the childcare, and once again she is a housewife by proxy.

In the US student loans for higher education can be forgiven (at least in part) if the graduates agree to going into certain professions for a number of years. Nursing and teaching are two of the most popular.


Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

This is a weird weird suggestion. Let the women choose whether they want to stay at home or work. Loss of human capital.. Going a bit too far.

-- Fighting my own apathy..