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From: Family Responsibilities

Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2005 10:28 AM

To: Family Responsibilities

Subject: FW: Submission

Paid Work and Family Responsibilities Submission

Sex Discrimination Unit

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

I want to make a submission on Striking the balance: women, men, work and family. I am making the submission as an individual, not as a member of an organisation. I want to respond to this on a personal level, using qualitative experience rather than the sort of quantitative data used in the report.

I feel this issue is one of the most significant ones facing contemporary society. I am a well educated single woman in my thirties. Every second conversation I have with women of my age is about their attempts to balance their lives by convincing their husbands/partners to do a fair share of housework.

It seems to me that the second wave of feminism moved women out of the domestic sphere into the public sphere (of paid work). But at the same time women have continued to have primary responsibility for unpaid work in the domestic sphere - caring for children and housework. This leads to the 'second shift' for women.

I really can't see how this situation can be remedied without men undergoing a similar revolution. Men need to accept responsibility for housework. Until they do, as long as they continue to rest in times when they are not work rather than doing housework, we cannot achieve equality. Housework and caring for children and elderly people is unpaid, low status, repetitive, but necessary work. Men simply must move into the domestic sphere and take responsibility for this work if they wish to live in an equal society.

The best way of moving towards this goal is probably educating children. If they are constantly indoctrinated it may be that boys will grow up to see that they can't profess a love of equality and fail to clean the toilet.

This submission can be published but please omit my address.

Sincerely

Emma Hawkes