"Work and family: The challenge for modern Australia"
Speech by Commissioner
Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner,
Royal Women's Hospital
Tracy and Maund Address
Royal Women's Hospital, 27 August 2002
- Thank you for
inviting me here this evening.
- It is a great
privilege to have been given the opportunity to deliver the Royal Women's
Hospital Memorial Tracy Maund address.
- In 1856, when
Drs Richard Tracy and John Maund established the Lying in Hospital (today
the Royal Women's Hospital) they were responding to the need to provide
Melbourne with good, accessible maternity care.
- Establishing
the hospital was a courageous decision - they were not men of great
private means.
- They were however
men who saw a challenge and responded to it.
- Today we reap
the benefits.
- In 2002 The Royal
Women's Hospital is the largest women's hospital in Australia.
- Tonight, I would
like to follow the lead of these great men.
- I would like to
identify what is fast emerging as the most increasingly relevant challenge
for modern Australia - and consider how we can respond to it.
- The challenge
- achieving a work family balance.
- How we respond
to this challenge will affect the lives of women, families, and next
generations.
- The need to address
it is recognised across society.
- When Valuing
Parenthood: Options for paid maternity leave was launched, for example,
it was intended to begin an informed and fair-minded public debate about
the need or otherwise for a national paid maternity leave scheme for
Australia.
- To be honest
the most we hoped for was that the Government might agree to pay for
some economic modelling on a couple of options.
- Well weren't
we under-achievers!
- None of us anticipated
the strength and depth of the public support for the issue.
- But perhaps we
should have.
- Perhaps we should
have known that if work wasn't working for women, then it wouldn't be
working for anyone else much either- their parents, partners, their
children and babies.
- Perhaps we should
have believed that the anxieties we hold for the struggle women still
face in Australia were anxieties shared by others, a lot of others.
- Perhaps we should
have realised that if we think we can no longer put off facing up to
some of the profound social challenges emerging in Australia, then the
rest of the country might be thinking the same way.
- And they are.
- Why?
- Because they have
to.
- Because every
year our fertility rate declines.
- It currently sits
at 1.70.
- In 2000 it was
1.75.
- In 1990 it was
1.9.
- A fertility rate
falling below the necessary replacement rate of 2.1 is the symptom of
something going wrong.
- But it is only
a symptom. It is not the disease itself.
- Work and family
is not a 'womb gazing' debate.
- It is a debate
about women's working lives.
- It is about women
making life choices around the fact that today they continue to receive
less pay, less opportunity, and less financial support in the workplace
because they bear children.
- Women still only
earn 84 cents in the male dollar, when comparing average weekly ordinary
full time earnings.
- This gap occurs
for a number of reasons as we know - basic workplace discrimination;
perhaps, women's career expectations; workforce gender segregation which
is ongoing and high; and, of course, family responsibilities.
- It is the gendered
nature of family responsibilities that now form the greatest barrier
to equal pay.
- Pay inequity is
intertwined with work and family issues.
- Let me explain.
- First, women
who negotiate with bosses for salaries quite often end up with less
then their male counterparts doing the same job.
- They arrive at
the bargaining table feeling that they will have to forfeit a higher
salary because they know one day they may need greater workplace flexibility
or they may have to take days off due to commitments to their children.
- Men - many of
whom will become or are fathers don't even consider factoring these
things when they sit down to 'talk figures'.
- Second, that
promotion often isn't available to women, nor are the extra hours, nor
is the senior position available in the interstate office for three
months because they need to get home to their kids.
- The disparity
in the earning ratio between women and men grows to 66 cents in the
dollar when part time and casual workers are added into the equation.
- It is not surprising
then to find that it is women making up 73 per cent of all part time
employees and 60 per cent of the casual workforce.
- Women in Australia
are most likely to have children when they are between the ages of 30-34.
- This is the age
when women are most likely to be combining work and family.
- It is no coincidence
that it is when the earnings of men and women over 30 are compared that
the earning gap is most obvious.
- Disparate earning
ratios are only part of the workplace disadvantage that women experience
due to their child bearing role.
- It still comes
as something of a shock for many independent and confident young women
when they discover a whole new world of discrimination or barriers to
work when they embark upon parenthood.
- During pregnancy,
there are still many employers who consider that women do not work as
productively, while pregnant- they either demote or dismiss them, deny
them training or otherwise allow their careers to stagnate.
- A front office
job may quickly become a back office job should a boss decide that a
life-bulging stomach is unsightly.
- At a paid maternity
leave consultation held with union representatives in Tasmania a union
representative relayed the experience of a member, who was forced to
move to a different work area (away from the public eye) when she was
pregnant as her employer felt that her 'bulge' showed that she led an
active sexual life!
- This treatment
does not end after the birth.
- For women who
want and choose to breast-feed, many workplaces cannot or will not provide
suitable conditions for the expressing of milk.
- Many women have
to settle for unchallenging jobs, or to forego promotions in order to
secure part time work or flexible hours.
- There remains
a perception that part time work cannot be challenging and that part
time workers are not sufficiently committed.
- Women often experience
a lack of sufficient financial support during maternity, no guarantee
that a job is there when they return from maternity leave, difficulty
accessing affordable childcare, difficulty finding hours that suit their
families, or poor access to flexible work conditions which would allow
them to occasionally take time off for family reasons.
- Women are also
the ones who end up taking large amounts of unpaid leave, or just time
out of the workforce, further contributing to the direct economic cost
they bear for having our children.
- And if you query
this, if you think that families will always share their income, do
I need to remind you of the high rate of divorce over the long term?
and the higher reliance of older women on social welfare compared with
the reliance of older men?
- And of course
we can't forget women have a right to participate in public life.
- Some women work
because they have to financially, some because while they may choose
not to work while their children are young, decide to do so to keep
their skills current. Others see paid work as satisfying, as a time
for themselves away from the home.
- And of course
there are many of us for whom work is intrinsically satisfying - it
forms part of our identities.
- Women work for
a range of reasons. Just as men do. And we have a right to do so.
- However, as we
know, the world of work as currently constituted, was designed by and
for men - men with women at home to support them.
- If women are
to fully participate without discrimination in the workplace we need
to do at least one of two things - change gender roles or change the
workplace.
- Our best bet may
be to change the workplace - to create an environment that welcomes
women as we are - including our family responsibilities.
- This is called
substantive equality - delivering equality of outcome for women in work
-delivering our right to work.
- How do we go about
doing this?
- There are a number
of ways - we implement family friendly work practices; we make flexible
working hours the norm; we make good childcare more accessible and affordable;
and we replace our current system of paid maternity leave - ad hoc,
and at the individual employer's discretion - with a national scheme
of paid maternity leave.
- I would like the take a few moments to discuss some of these measures in more detail.
Flexible working hours
- In its current
form, part time work and casual work is a double edged sword for women.
- Yes, it gives
women the opportunity to fit around their family responsibilities and
thus remains the preferred form of work for women with families; however
it is difficult to find well paid part time or casual work (the bulk
is in hospitality and retail) and extremely difficult to find it at
the professional or managerial end of the labour market.
- In addition,
finding formal child care on a part-time or shift basis is almost impossible.
- There is no systemic
approach to part time work in Australia. It is offered - and at the
employer's discretion.
- In this respect
Australia is lagging behind.
- From April 2003
in the UK employers will have an explicit duty to properly consider
mother's and father's requests to work part time. This measure will
be introduced as part of a government commitment to increasing access
to flexible working practices.
- Four and a half
years ago, with the Equal Opportunity Commission decision in Hickie
v Hunt and Hunt it appeared that Australia was moving towards a similar
legal recognition of the right to part time work.
- This case involved
a female solicitor at a law firm who had been nominated for advancement
to contract partner.
- After the nomination,
the woman advised the firm that she was pregnant it was agreed that
she would take three months off work after the birth and then work three
days per week on her return.
- Shortly before
her scheduled return several of the firm's partners met with the solicitor
and suggested that she reduce her practice and give up a number of her
case files.
- She did not agree
with this proposal and the firm then refused her request for a temporary
replacement. She returned to work, working three days from the office
and two days from home.
- In a subsequent
performance assessment the woman received an unfavourable review. In
noted "I do not believe you can run a practice and service clients
three days per week."
- The woman's partnership
contract was not renewed and she complained that the statement concerning
part time work was in effect a requirement that she must work full time
to maintain her position and that such a requirement was indirect discrimination
on the grounds of sex.
- The firm responded
to this by saying that full time work was inherent to the position.
- The Equal Opportunity
Commission found that the requirement to work full time would inevitably
disadvantage women practitioners, especially those aspiring to be partners
and that the requirement to work full time imposed on the solicitor
in order to maintain her position was not reasonable in the circumstances.
- At the time this
case was heralded as establishing a right to part time work.
- Recent litigation on this issue suggests that this is right is yet to be established, and as the following examples illustrate, access to part time work remains difficult for women returning to work from maternity leave:
Example 1:
Bogle v Metropolitan Health Service Board (2000) EOC 93-069
- Following a period
of adoption leave, a dental clinic nurse sought to return to work on
a part time job share basis.
- Her employer offered
her either her old job back on a full time basis or a part time job
with lesser status and responsibility.
- According to the
employer, the position of charge nurse, which this woman held, could
not be shared, had always been performed on a full time basis.
- The woman made
a complaint before the Equal Opportunity Commission who found that the
requirement to work full time imposed on employees undertaking supervisory
positions disproportionately affected women and employees with family
responsibilities.
- This requirement was found to be unreasonable as the employer had failed to consider the employee's job share proposal.
Example 2:
Schou Deborah v State of Victoria [1999] VCAT 631
- A woman was employed
full time as a sub editor on the Hansard reports at Parliament house.
She wanted to continue working full time, however work two days of every
week from home so that she may fulfil her family responsibilities.
- Her employer would
not agree to this arrangement and she complained before the Victorian
Civil & Administrative Tribunal. It held that an employee's parental
or carer responsibilities should be considered in determining whether
a work from home arrangement is viable.
- In this situation
it was not reasonable to insist that the employee attend her workplace
everyday. A modem could be installed at the woman's home, at modest
cost and without difficulty, enabling her to work from home.
- The decisions
in these cases suggest that there is a de facto right to part time work
in Australia.
- The attitudes
of employers in these cases suggests however that even if this right
is recognised legally it is not adhered to in reality.
- How do we make
this leap then - from legal dicta to real life practice?
- We do it through
an attitudinal change towards work and family issues.
- Across society, we recognise and accept that women work and have children.
Paid Maternity Leave
- A national scheme
of paid maternity leave is one way of providing the cultural recognition
of this fact within the workforce and within society.
- It recognises
the non-work related responsibilities of half of the people in the workforce.
- It says, we recognise
that women, who bear this particular responsibility, are entitled to
the same workforce respect and recognition as the bloke who uses his
defence leave entitlement to go into the army for 12 months; those who
take study leave or long service leave; or the person who accesses their
entitlement to jury duty leave.
- Paid maternity
leave is also about income replacement.
- With no universal
scheme of paid maternity leave in place, the majority of women lose
their entire income for at least the first few weeks following the birth
of a child.
- Paid maternity
leave will go someway to addressing the loss of income, and therefore,
at least slightly reduce the gender pay gap.
- It will mean that
women can afford to be out of the workforce, while recovering from childbirth,
establishing a breastfeeding routine and bonding with a child without
the stress that they cannot financially afford to be doing this.
- Let me explain.
- While the birth
of a child is often a special time for families for women it is also
a time characterised by colic, croup, cracked nipples, six feeds a day
and sheer physical exhaustion.
- Post natal depression
is common, as is the need for a physical recovery from caesarean section
births.
- Dragging yourself
out of bed after your head has just hit the pillow-following feed number
five- to go to work is 'that's life' for many women with newborn babies.
- Addressing the
health and welfare issues for mothers and newborns is an issue of importance
to you here tonight.
- The Royal Women's
Hospital is dedicated to looking after the health needs of women of
all ages, all cultures and the new born.
- Providing maternity
care was the focus of the work of John Maund and Richard Tracy.
- Their concerns
for the health of new mothers and their newborns would no doubt have
made them supporters of a national scheme of paid maternity leave -
should it have been the issue on the agenda in their day.
- This brings me
to the final point I would like to address tonight.
- Why is work and
family the issue of today?
- Why are we discussing
paid maternity leave and flexible work hours?
- Because these
are realistic responses to the needs of the modern Australian family
- the two income family.
- Sure, one parent
might only need to work part time, but work they both do.
- It's not about
saving up for the overseas family holiday, if indeed it ever was.
- Today the majority
of women will have to work part or full time for at least part of their
parenting years.
- Why?
- Because the real
cost of living is high.
- In particular,
housing affordability, Australia-wide, has declined by 29% within the
space of a generation.
- You need two
incomes to carry the mortgage on the slum of your dreams, forget the
4 bedroom mansion with the spa bath and optional pool room!
- Into this heady
pressure pack, you can now add the fact that women still bear children
and somehow have to cope with all this while juggling a major responsibility
that hasn't changed for thousands of years and isn't likely to!
- Traditionally,
we have based our support for families around the male breadwinner model.
- A model which
is no longer relevant.
- The family has
changed, therefore the sort of support we give to families has got to
change.
- Paid maternity
leave acknowledges this.
- As does the introduction
of flexible work practices, and an acceptance of part time work.
- These are sensible
and effective way of supporting today's Australian families.
- Let's follow the
lead of the men we are here tonight to honour. Let's meet our challenges
with an appropriate, meaningful, sustainable response.
