Childcare remains the 'largest barrier' for working women

Employers should take note of key incentives that could help unburden female employees

BY Paulinet Tamaray 15 Nov 2022

Caring for children continues to be the most significant barrier to female participation in the workforce, according to recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS data, collected between July 2020 and June 2021, mirrored the labour market conditions during such a time, especially when the pandemic was likely to affect the reasons people were not working or could not work.

“While female participation in the labour force is at record high levels, this data shows that childcare remains the key for increasing the opportunities for women to participate in the labour market,” Bjon Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said in a media release.

Inability to start a job or work more hours

The ABS data showed that aside from childcare, long-term sickness or disability was the second-largest barrier to female participation in the workforce, followed by short-term sickness or injury.

“In 2020-21, there were 250,000 women who wanted a job or to work more hours but were unavailable, of whom 61,600 (25 percent) indicated that caring for children was the main barrier,” Jarvis said. “It was highest for women with children under 15, with more than half (56 per cent) reporting this as their main barrier to work or working more hours.”

The data also revealed that most of the mothers who want to participate in the labour force indicated that childcare significantly influenced their labour force participation, as they prefer to look after their children. The second most common reason they stated was that their children were too young or too old for formal childcare, and third, childcare costs were too expensive for their household.

Key incentives

Despite the persistent childcare barrier, the ABS noted that key incentives would still influence women to join or increase their participation in the labour force. Based on the ABS data, the most crucial incentive for women to start working or increase their working hours was the ability to work part-time hours.

“Almost two out of every three women with children under 15 (65 per cent) indicated that the most important incentive to return to work or work more hours would be the ability to work part-time, followed by the ability to work during school hours (61 per cent),” Jarvis said. “If this and other important conditions were met, 42 per cent of them would likely accept a suitable job as soon as possible.”