even though figures and take a crosssectional perspective and consider women of different ages only in a given year the implication is that once women in germany work parttime they do not resume fulltime employment indeed they appear to be stuck in a parttime trap inactivity is widespread particularly among older women suggesting that once they are out of employment it is difficult to return to work figure shows a correspondingly wide gender gap in working hours across all ages in the overall workingage population righthand panel