Elsewhere in the country, women occupy just 2.2% of the seats on the governing boards of Germany’s top-100 companies. All of this raises the issue of the difficulties faced by women in their attempt to balance family and career obligations. As it stands the German government has no plans to follow in the footsteps of its neighbours: Norway has already succeeded in imposing a 40% quota, France and Spain have pledged to achieve 40% by 2015, the Netherlands is preparing to introduce a 30% quota, and the European Commission has warned that it will take the initiative if national governments in other EU states do not act to raise the number of women on governing boards by  2011.

But French magistrates, the paper continued, criticised the lack of social-service resources to help victims and called the legislation "a law for show" and "window dressing". One of the bill's most notable measures is the introduction in France of the electronic bracelet, which could be imposed on violent spouses. Such devices are already used in Spain. Le Monde noted that on average domestic violence accounts for the death of one woman every three days in France.

There is no doubt that the real statistics for Europe are much higher because the study was limited to six countries (Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovenia and Denmark), and excluded such sought after destinations as Cyprus and Ukraine. The motives cited by future parents who seek treatment abroad are almost always linked to national legislation in their countries of origin, which they believe to be unnecessarily restrictive. "Most of the women concerned are from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands,  and France," explains Trouw. "In Italy, it is illegal for women to seek to be inseminated with donated sperm or ova; in France, lesbian couples and single women are not allowed to apply for treatment, and British women have to make do with a limited number of clinics that charge very expensive rates. In the Netherlands, older women often choose to travel to Belgium to benefit from a higher age-limit for fertility treatment, which is authorized up to age 47."