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Sex Discrimination

Striking the Balance: Women, men, work
and family

Launch Speech by Pru Goward, Federal
Sex Discrimination Commissioner

22 June 2005 , Sydney NSW


There has never been a right time to talk about who does the washing and ironing.

It is either in the middle of blazing row, or when you're on the hunt for
a business shirt in the ironing basket and find clothes you had forgotten you
owned, or when one of you is trying to explain away either your domestic incompetence
or the long hours you work.

Perhaps the same can be said of the nation. Housework is either relegated to the Mere Male letter pages or the curiosity columns. A prime minister of many years ago once told me proudly he had no idea where the kitchen was and we have yet to see a political aspirant being photographed in an apron on his quest for votes, unless it's a barbecue apron.

But if there ever is to be right time, then the time is now. For men and women, families and the nation.

Because the sharing of paid and unpaid work is about time. There are only 24 hours in a day and they are shared between how much time we spend on economic effort and how much we spend in unpaid work. And if we are lucky there are a few hours left over for sleep and maybe even leisure.

The more hours we spend working, the fewer hours we have available to care for ourselves, our families and our communities. Likewise the more time we spend on unpaid care, the less there is available for paid work.

The profound demographic and economic challenges facing Australia's economy have brought paid work to centre-stage. Its Siamese twin, unpaid work, comes with it.

The ageing of Australia, the declining birth rate and the globalization of trade all mean that Australia's economic sustainability is only possible if more people work more productively and for longer. In an era of self-funded and lengthy retirement, access to work is also a critical issue for individuals.

Economic sustainability and the need to increase Australia's work effort are key policy issues for the Australian government.

But how do we achieve a greater work effort without affecting the hours of
unpaid work? How do we ensure that our families - children and elders particularly
- are cared for? How do we enable all of us to provide for our final years
without squeezing even further the time we have for unpaid work and caring
responsibilities?

Suddenly who does the washing and ironing, who looks after the children and who cares for ageing parents become questions of national significance.

It means the sometimes tired work and family debate is not simply a "women's
issue".

Although have no doubt, it is an issue for gender equality.

Which is why this is my business.

Because gender equality is concerned with this same question, the division of time.

Between paid and unpaid work and the choices we make about who does it.

With costs and consequences for both men and women.

Those who carry a greater burden of unpaid responsibilities cannot expect to carry the same burden of paid responsibilities.

Men who work long hours of paid work are denied many of the rewards and responsibilities of family life, particularly its joys and intimacies, while women who work long hours of unpaid work are denied many of the rewards and responsibilities of public life and, in particular self esteem and economic self-sufficiency.

It is true that we often assume many Australians are reasonably content with the present allocation of these responsibilities, most of the time. Or at least that they see no use in complaining.

But the tides of change - demographic, economic as well as social - are now demanding a re-think of the way we share work and care.

And then of course, the federal Government has made paid work a new imperative - and you cannot expect to change paid work arrangements without also changing those for unpaid work.

Time sees to that. The certainty of twenty four hours in a day.

The unequal sharing of paid and unpaid work has a number of macroeconomic consequences. The Treasurer has identified the three 'P's - population, participation and productivity - as the three factors that contribute to economic growth. Each of these is influenced by paid and unpaid work arrangements.

Without the ability to share more unpaid work with their partners, women will not be able to increase their participation in paid work, necessary if we are to boost workforce participation rates. Australia's fertility rate is also linked to the unequal sharing of unpaid work. Calls for prime aged and older workers to work longer and harder will not work if these workers are shouldering the increasing need for elder care.[i]

Because of course people in the paid workforce have family responsibilities that extend well beyond parental care of children or people with disabilities. Caring work does, and increasingly will, extend across the lifecycle.

Like parenting, elder care also has a strong gender component, with many more women than men taking on unpaid caring responsibilities.[ii]

Of parents receiving primary care in 2003, 91 per cent were cared for by their daughters.

In addition, there are signs of an emerging 'sandwich generation', where
women are being squeezed between the demands of care for children and care
for ageing parents.[iii] For the majority of
women who combine paid work with a disproportionate share of caring and domestic
work, the double shift is likely to become a "triple shift" in the future.

It is true that we could leave all this for the market place to sort; no need for discussion papers and a national conversation, let families manage as best they can in whatever policy and workplace environment happen to be in place at the time.

Of course, ultimately, families will work out their arrangements for themselves.

But families need to know what their options are. We need to think about all the choices available, not just the ones we know about. We need to think up new options to give us greater choices.

If we are going to better understand the choices people have and make, the experiences and attitudes of men, as well as women, must be included.

And we need to make sure that these discussions and decisions are made in a policy and workplace framework that promotes choice and equality. It is an issue that is central to the national interest. It is an issue for public policy, for governments, employers, policy-makers, researchers and journalists.

And it is one that this discussion paper, Striking the Balance; Women, men, work and family, sets out to explore.

Striking the Balance is the first phase of the Commission's project on paid work and family responsibilities. This project is fundamentally concerned with the choices men and women make about how they spend their unpaid work time and the effect this has on their choices and opportunities in paid work.

This discussion paper asks a number of key questions, such as:

  • Do women's and men's different paid and unpaid work obligations affect their economic outcomes, health, relationships and life chances? and
  • What factors, including partner and community attitudes, social policy or workplace relations shape men's and women's decisions about paid work and family arrangements?

The constraints that paid work imposes on men's unpaid time use frequently deny them the opportunity to enjoy their families and fulfil their responsibilities to other family members. The paper asks:

  • What are the best ways of engaging men in the work of caring (for children, elders or other family members) and other unpaid work?

Similarly, while women work on average longer paid and unpaid hours than men, they are frequently impoverished or economically dependent as a result. They are often grateful to have part time work even if it does not reflect their skills or training and provides little retirement comfort, so long as it accommodates their children's needs. Many women have distinctly modest expectations about the contribution their male partners can make to sharing the household and unpaid care responsibilities. We need to ask:

  • What are the barriers to changing attitudes towards a more equal division of paid work and family responsibilities?

Enabling individuals and families to manage their paid work and family responsibilities depends on individual circumstances. But, legislative frameworks, government assistance, workplace cultures and attitudes shape the very different arrangements men and women make for unpaid caring, housework and paid employment. The paper asks:

  • What do you think should be the role of the government, employers and families in promoting appropriate divisions of paid and unpaid work by Australian families?

While perspectives on this question will differ, the links between these pieces of the paid work and family picture are undeniable. Governments may be unwilling to take on more responsibility for these matters but, almost by default, remain responsible for ensuring that the system works properly; oversighting if not regulating where appropriate.

One of the roles of government is, after all, to manage economic, demographic, technological and social change so that the underlying stability and satisfaction of Australian society and Australian family life is preserved.

The workplace, of course, is an area that needs to be regularly examined to ensure that workers are able to balance their paid work and family obligations in a way that meets community expectations.

And families themselves have to divide their time to make sure they have room for their paid and unpaid caring responsibilities. The research tells us that there is strong support among Australian men and women for egalitarian values; however there is a gap between belief and reality in many Australian households.[iv]

Men and women create a range of strategies for reconciling themselves to
this situation. One of them is inattention and debate over housekeeping standards.
In one study a male respondent declares: "I don't know who does the bathroom,
she must do it, 'cause I don't."[v]

The private world of the home can be sensitive and even difficult to navigate at times. But this does not mean we should resile from talking about our arrangements. Domestic harmony may even be a trade-off for ignoring unfair arrangements, yet as Striking the Balance demonstrates, ignoring these paid work and family tensions poses a number of negative long term threats to individual health and of course relationships themselves.

As a discussion paper, Striking the Balance encourages submissions on any of these issues and the areas identified by the questions posed throughout the paper. Consultations around the country over the next few months will also present the Australian public with opportunities to express their concerns and ideas to the Commission. Australian families are a diverse lot and we welcome input from all types of families and individuals about their paid work and family arrangements along with their suggestions for improvements.

This project is essentially about choice.

But in a sense it is also about no choice. The forces propelling Australia now and into the future will not be denied. In this, as the treasurer has so often said, Australia has no choice. This is destiny.

How we deal with these forces is of course, up to us. This discussion paper and the national conversation we hope will flow from it is intended to inform the thinking of all those involved in public policy- but also to assist today's Australian families reconcile their competing goals and responsibilities. In the end, it's about happiness.

Thank you


i. See pp 70-75 of Striking the Balance: Women,
men, work and family
for
discussion of each of these issues.

ii. See pp 39-42 in Striking the Balance: Women,
men, work and family
.

iii. See p 62 in Striking the Balance: Women,
men, work and family
.

iv. See chapter 3 and chapter 5 in Striking
the Balance: Women, men, work and family
.

v. Michael Bittman and Frances Lovejoy "Domestic Power:
Negotiating an unequal division of labour within a framework of equality"
(1993) 29 Australian
and New Zealand Journal of Sociology
3, pp 302-321 at p 314. See also
chapter 5 in Striking the Balance: Women, men, work and family.