Jutta is 34. She has a business degree and worked for an advertising agency in Hamburg for seven years, steadily climbing the ranks before meeting her husband, Horst.

When Horst, a doctor, was offered a job near Osnabrück, Jutta followed him. And when she didn’t immediately find work, she decided to have a baby. Next year, perhaps, she will look for a part-time job.

Does she mind being financially dependent on her husband? Putting her professional life second to his? “I don’t think about it that way,” she said. “I put my child first.”

I met several German mothers like Jutta on the playground and was torn between sympathy and impatience.