Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL POLICY
Volume 33, Issue 9-10, Pages 594-612Publisher
EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-11-2012-0100
Keywords
Work/life; Gender equality; Family policy; Australia; Family life; Social policy
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
- South Australian Government
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Purpose - This paper aims to explore recent changes in Australia's work-family policies and programs and their implications for gender ( in) equality. Design/methodology/approach - The authors critically assess a suite of new work/family-related policies, including the introduction of a government-funded national paid parental leave scheme, a limited right to request flexible working conditions, and the extension of state and federal anti-discrimination legal protections for workers with family responsibilities. Findings - The analysis suggests a lack of coherence and integration between various work/family related policies and the need for a wider range of reforms, particularly in relation to domestic work and care. It is found that the gendered use of flexibility rights, like the new right to request, do not necessarily improve gender equality and may work to entrench it in the face of strong gendered workplace and societal norms and practices around work and care. As a consequence women workers and mothers - who have been constructed as the work/family problem to be fixed - are left even more rushed and pressed for time. Originality/value - This empirically-informed analysis shows the power of the broader gender political and normative context and the limits of modest and piecemeal policy reform in relation to work-family issues - even where economic conditions remain relatively positive. The paper concludes that without robust, multi-faceted and integrated policy reform around work and family, in which gender equality outcomes are a central objective, policy reforms will fail to achieve a more equal sharing of paid and caring work between men and women, and greater equality between women and men more generally.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available