Tomorrow today - 21st Century
Solutions
Speech delivered by Pru
Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner
4 September 2002
National Work and Family Conference 2002
Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
Darling Harbour, Sydney
- Thank you for
inviting me to address the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Family Conference.
- 21st century
solutions.
- Solutions assume
problems - and today we have a problem of grave concern for the future
of Australia.
- Put simply, it
is the problem of our workforce not working for women.
- Why does this
have ramifications for our future?
- Because if it's
not working for women, it is not going to work for their partners, their
families, their children- our children.
- The workforce
currently fails women because it ignores two basic facts:
- Fact one - Women
are in the workforce to stay.
- They currently
make up 44 per cent of the Australia's labour force, and every year
this figure increases.
- Women have a
right to work. We taught them to read and write, we encouraged them
to become educated, learn a trade and pursue careers. And so here they
are - an integral, necessary and crucial part of Australia's workforce
today.
- Fact two - women
are the bearers of, and remain the primary carers for children.
- Women therefore
perform a demanding dual role - as workers and mothers.
- Men too perform
a dual role - as workers and fathers.
- For most men
however being a father does not mean having to take time off work to
give birth or to be the primary care giver.
- It does not mean
trying to negotiate more flexible working hours, being paid less or
taking long, often career damaging periods off work.
- Today's workforce
is the consequence of history. It was designed by men for men. Although
it does not accommodate their fathering role particularly well - it
does not prevent them being able to both work and father.
- It does however
fail to satisfactorily accommodate women as they attempt to perform
their dual role.
- We know it fails
today because women are forced to choose one or the other.
- Social, economic
and physiological factors combine and mean that it is often child bearing
that is forfeited in this 'either or' choice. It is a cruel and often
personally difficult choice.
- Our child bearing
trends reflect this.
- Our fertility
rate currently sits at 1.7.
- This is well
below the necessary replacement rate of 2.1.
- The average age
of first time mothers is 29.8.
- Women are having
fewer children, later in life, if at all.
- A 21st century
solution to this problem is one that will make it possible for women
to both work and have children. Not to choose.
- It is one that
will allow a work and family balance to be achieved for women, and therefore
for their partners and their families.
- The solution involves
structural and attitudinal changes in and towards the workforce.
- It involves implementing
family friendly work practices; making flexible working hours the norm;
providing good, accessible, affordable childcare; and replacing our
current system of paid maternity leave - ad hoc, and at the individual
employer's discretion - with a national scheme of paid maternity leave.
- Introducing such
a scheme is our current focus. We are in the midst of a national debate
on this issue.
- Paid maternity
leave is recognised as both a starting point and centrepiece of the
solution.
- Implemented as
a national scheme, it will provide all women in the work with access
to a period of paid leave after the birth of a child.
- This will mean
that all new mothers will have time, out of work, to recover from childbirth,
establish a feeding routine and bond with their child - without financial
pressures forcing them back to their jobs.
- A national scheme
of paid maternity leave is of particular benefit to women on low incomes
and in less skilled jobs.
- Because it is
this group of women who are currently least likely to have access to
paid maternity leave.
- Let me explain.
- Industries requiring
less skilled employees, where lower incomes are earned, are less likely
to provide paid maternity leave:
- According to EOWA
data, only 5.2 per cent of accommodation, cafes and restaurants and
7.2 per cent of retail trade organisations provide paid maternity leave.
- A survey conducted
by the ABS in June 2000 found that occupations with the lowest incidence
of paid maternity leave were elementary clerical sales and service workers
(18 per cent) and labourers and related workers (21 per cent).
- True, women in
these lower paid, low skill industries and occupations may be able to
access means tested benefits. None of these benefits however deliver
what paid maternity leave does - income replacement for women, not working,
in the period following the birth of a child.
- The parenting
payment, for example, offers income support. The Maternity allowance,
although when initially introduced by the Keating government was a form
of income replacement, is now described as help to meet the extra costs
associated with the birth of a new baby.
- Paid maternity
leave is not about giving these women or families some 'extra' money,
so that a really nice cot can be bought, or money can be put aside for
the family's first Christmas trip. It is about replacing an income that
is being used to pay the rent or mortgage or buy the groceries.
- For this reason
alone we need to introduce a national scheme of paid maternity leave.
- Further to this,
the less you earn, the less skilled you are, the more marginally attached
to the workforce you are. You are more dispensible, you are not an accountant
with invaluable set of skills, the reality is you are often a replaceable
set of hands on a factory line.
- Being physically
present is how you maintain your workforce attachment - taking time
off is not an option as there may be no job for you to come back to.
You may only be as good as your last shift. The less skilled you are,
the more likely you are to experience unemployment, or periods of unemployment.
- For this reason,
low income families need two income earners. Relying on one earner is
just too risky when unemployment is never far away. For these families
women work not just to pay the rent (let's forget the mortgage) but
to lower the risk of that family having no income. Increasingly, even
for higher income earners, work has become more precarious. Job security
is less of a guarantee than it used to be. People no longer enter firms,
companies or organisations 'for life'.
- Non permanent
positions, consulting work and contract work are fast become the norm.
- So the risk of
unemployment for the sole bread winner is now becoming the experience
of higher income earners. It is no longer an issue for low income earner
families alone. So this means more families needing to offset the risk
of unemployment by having two working parents.
- It is essential
therefore that it be an entitlement available to all women in work.
- But never let
it be said that low income women would not benefit from paid maternity
leave. It is very much about income replacement and job security for
women earning low incomes and in less skilled positions - unless these
women do not count.
- And these are
the women who today, are least likely to be receiving it from their
employers.
- Paid Maternity
Leave makes it possible for a balance to be achieved between working
and having children - for low income women.
- In fact, providing
a national scheme of paid maternity leave will probably be least beneficial
to 'high powered' women - lawyers and accountants for example.
- Why?
- Because a lot
of these women already have access to paid maternity leave.
- They may work
in firms who need to hire the best people for the job and as such provide
paid maternity leave to be an employer of choice; Their high skill level
may also mean that they have the power to include paid maternity leave
in enterprise agreements or when negotiating individual work contracts.
- Be aware though,
when negotiated as part of an individual work contract, paid maternity
leave is often provided at the sacrifice of earning capacity - Women
obtain the leave - in exchange for earning less.
- We need only look
at the discrepancy between the income levels of men and women for proof
of this. Women still only earn 84 cents in the male dollar, when comparing
average weekly ordinary full time earnings.
- A national scheme
of paid maternity leave may therefore go some way in reducing pay inequities
- which is of benefit for all women.
- Paid maternity
leave is therefore a crucial part of our 21st solution.
- It is a practical,
effective and viable way of making it possible for women to work and
have children.
- Making it possible
for women to achieve this balance, will affect the future of our workforce,
our families and our nation.
Last
updated 5 September 2002
