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Too little time

By Emma Simone - posted Wednesday, 30 August 2006


The fact that mothers generally bear greater (unpaid) responsibility for the day-to-day care of their children means that their access to a variety of workplace opportunities is necessarily restricted There are only so many hours in a day.

Australian Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja has argued that a combination of inadequate childcare places, the lack of a national scheme of paid maternity leave, few workplace supports for working parents, and women’s over-representation in “insecure, casual positions” has meant that the workforce participation rate of women in Australia with two or more children is the second lowest in the OECD.

The Government has placed no limit on child care costs, so some parents pay between $90 and $110 per day just so they can go to work. Men with families, too, are also often “locked-in” to traditional gender roles, particularly that of family breadwinner, because their earning capacity is generally greater than women’s, even within the same industry and job description.

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It often makes more economic sense for the woman to stop working or reduce working hours to become the primary carer of their children. As a consequence, both the woman and children of the partnership become economically dependent on the male. This economic reliance may very well account for the fact that fathers “of young children are likely to be working a greater number of hours than all men”.

In a paper presented to the Fabian Society, Sara Charlesworth from RMIT University’s Centre for Applied Social Research, suggested one possible solution to the problem of work-family balance was the “strengthening” of part-time work, which has overwhelmingly been the realm of women.

As a FACS policy paper observed, men rarely work part-time. The FACS paper emphasises the very real disadvantages currently tied to part-time work: few social benefits such as holiday or sick pay, “low prospects for advancement and promotion”, “worse staff-management relations”, among others. Sara Charlesworth argues that access to part-time work needs to be created at all levels, including senior and executive levels, and part-time workers need the same benefits and job protection as full-time workers.

For such a move to be ultimately effective the traditionally gendered nature of such work needs to change, and “how to include men” becomes an important issue.

A 2003 survey by Relationships Australia found, “Eighty-nine per cent of Australians agreed that relationships suffer because of work-life conflict”. In particular, the lack of time that married couples can spend together was seen as the biggest negative influence on relationships.

Striking the Balance emphasises that women who are in the paid workforce and also bear the greater responsibility for unpaid work within the home, feel “anger, tiredness and strain” to such an extent that for some it becomes “grounds for divorce”.

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A survey of 779 dual-income marriages found that “women who perceive their division of household labour as unfair are more likely to divorce than those who perceive their share of housework to be fair”.

Men are also feeling the strain of the work-life balance. The pressure to be the breadwinner and work long hours is not only potentially detrimental to their health and general well-being, but leads to “insufficient breaks from workplace stress and insufficient time to devote to family and intimate relationships”. This is reflected in a 1999 survey of 1,000 Australian men, 68 per cent of whom believed they “did not spend enough time with their children”.

The recent industrial relations changes will clearly exacerbate existing feelings of discontent within relationships. There is a very real possibility that marital dissatisfaction and pressure will increase, and divorce figures rise as a result of changes in the Government’s workplace policies. Senator Stott Despoja stresses that the changes in legislation will mean “many parents, especially those on lower incomes, will lose precious family time … including time for holidays together and time off to see the school play or sports day”.

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About the Author

Emma Simone is a postgraduate student working in the areas of literature and philosophy.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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