MEN ARE increasingly demanding more time with their children and the right to be primary carers, and employers need to take a good hard look at both the paid and unpaid work that men and women do on a daily basis, according to federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward
MEN ARE increasingly demanding more time with their children and the right to be primary carers, and employers need to take a good hard look at both the paid and unpaid work that men and women do on a daily basis, according to Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward.
Speaking at the launch of a new Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) project to examine work/family balance, Goward said society had to move beyond the perception that balancing work and family is largely a woman’s concern.
“So long as this is the prevailing view, women will continue to suffer discrimination and men will continue to be denied time with their families,” she said.
“If we are serious about helping people to balance paid work and family obligations then we need to get serious about creating greater equality in the division of caring and household tasks.
“Men need to be able to access family-friendly work arrangements or have time at home with the children if they like, just as women do.”
The project, titled Striking the balance: women, men, work and family,aims to help employers in better understanding the pressures facing women and men in their efforts to combine their paid work and family responsibilities.
HREOC pointed to a 1999 study by the Department of Family and Community Services of 1,000 Australian fathers which showed 68 per cent felt they did not spend enough time with their children and 53 per cent felt that their job and family lives interfered with each other.
Yet international commentators have noted one of the major problems with provisions for men to take leave for child care was the low numbers who take it when it is available.
Conversely, there were studies showing women undertook 90 per cent of childcare tasks and 70 per cent of all family work, with only 15 per cent of fathers highly participative in terms of time on family work.
“Caring will increasingly be an issue for all of us, not just parents of young children, as our population ages and more of us find ourselves looking after our ageing parents,” Goward said.
The commission will consult with unions, employers and employer organisations, and public submissions will be sought following the release of a discussion paper in the first half of 2005.
