Gender and paid work-family arrangements: practices and problems

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Title: Gender and paid work-family arrangements: practices and problems
Author(s): Cartwright, Sheree
Abstract: This presentation draws on data from a longitudinal qualitative study in progress with 27 women discussing their paid work and family life arrangements after childbirth. Despite the increasingly innovative development of workplace ‘work/family’ policies to assist with combining paid work and family life responsibilities, individuals on the ground are negotiating paid work and family life arrangements in a broader context of gender relations, and ideal worker and carer norms. The current ‘choice orientated’ Industrial Relations policy framework adds a further layer of complexity to managing work/family life today. Many interview participants say they have ‘no choice’ and many are acutely constrained by a variety of immutable and fixed factors when it comes to arranging paid work and family life after childbirth, and have to make tough trade-offs. By focusing on stories from women in Higher Education and Retail who have mixed access to work/family policies, about managing, negotiating and arranging work and family life around the transition to childbirth, it is clear that we need to explore policy responses that take account of the gendered practices within the household. Preliminary findings raise issues about gender equity in both paid work and the household, in particular, the disadvantage that family responsibilities place on women’s lives and the ways in which women’s perceived ‘choices’ promote an unequal division of paid and unpaid workloads. These issues further bring into question practices and policies.
Publication type: Conference paper
Source: Paper presented at the ‘From Welfare to Social Investment: Reimagining Social Policy for the Life Course’ Conference, Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 21-22 February 2007
Publication year: 2007
Keyword(s): Family life; Paid work
Publisher: Centre for Public Policy
Publisher URL: http://public-policy.unimelb.edu.au/events/past/2007/from_welfare_to_social_investment