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 part-time 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.