Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Striking the Balance: Women, men, work and family

Join Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward for a union forum on paid work and family responsibilities.
This forum is organised as part of a series of consultations the Commissioner is holding around the country to take feedback on the issues raised in Striking the Balance: Women, men, work and family Discussion Paper 2005.
These consultations, in conjunction with written submissions, will be used to inform the final paper to be released in 2006.
You are encouraged to participate in these discussions to present your opinions, experience and priorities.

Background information:

Striking the Balance is a project launched by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward earlier this year that aims to examine family responsibilities and paid work.
The project will build on the Commission’s previous work  but it will take the work and family debate further by engaging men and by considering the private world of the home as the flipside of the world of paid work.
Women’s increasing labour force participation rate and the ageing of the Australian population mean that the need to combine family responsibilities with paid employment is an increasingly important issue for a much greater proportion of the workforce.
Women continue to bear the greater burden of unpaid work at the same time as more men are expressing the desire for greater involvement with their children. There is also growing community awareness of the importance for children of active fathering and a concern about the future burden of caring given Australia’s ageing population. Changes to the nature of employment, families’ greater commitment to paid work and greater parenting expectations can make it more difficult to manage unpaid caring work. There has also been broad public discussion of the causes and implications of Australia’s declining fertility rate.
All of these issues reinforce the need for men and women, governments, employers and employees work together to assist families in Australia to strike a balance between their obligations to paid work, their families and households.
Economic and demographic changes mean that we cannot avoid this challenge. However, we will not be successful unless we ensure men and women have the same opportunities to engage in paid work and unpaid caring work. While we have come a long way in opening up opportunities for women in paid work, we have not had the same success in allowing men and women to care equally for their families. It is this second half of the equality revolution that this project aims to accelerate.


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