Women and Childrearing

The role of women in society has expanded considerably over the past century. Less than a hundred years ago women in the United States, which purports to be the most democratic nation in the world, were not allowed to vote. Today, women in the developed world, including Australia, are better off than they have ever been with regards to their participation in the workforce and the valuation of their efforts. Nevertheless, significant ground remains to be made up. The importance of a woman's childrearing continues to be undervalued by society, and women with children face significant barriers to employment. This paper will examine the social and structural barriers that confront women with children in Australia. First, we will examine Australia's labor market and how it relates to women. Then, we will examine the social constructs that have created the disparity between men and women's participation in the labor market.

Historically, Australia featured a labor market which was segregated to a large degree by gender. It featured highly discriminatory policies such as the infamous "marriage bar," which banned married women from retaining their jobs in the public sector and in much of the private sector. From 1900 to 1970, the majority of women could only find employment in occupations that were considered women's work where more than half of the workers were women. While the fields in which women are more likely to work have changed over the past century, high le

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58.8 49.4 Teenage unemployment rate 15-19 yrs % 20.2 18.4 Youth unemployment rate 20-24 yrs % 15.3 12.1 Long-term unemployment as % of unemployment 33.1 27.5 % of unemployed looking for pt work 11.0 32.3 Casual employee ratio % 20.7 30.1 Part-time employment ratio % 12.2 43.6 Underemployed part-time workers '000 220 336 Mean full time earnings $ pw 753 608 Average weekly hours of employment Full-time Part-time 45.9 16.2 41.5 17.2 Hidden Unemployed '000 47 72 Source:ABS The Labour Force, Catalogue 6203.0; ABS, Weekly Earnings of Employees, Catalogue 6310.0. Adapted from Stracham, p. 21. Much of the reason for this disparity is due to the role of women as child-care providers. Because women have the primary responsibility as far as rearing a family's children, they dend to be relatively immobile in the workforce: Women are much more likely than men to be 'captive riders' on public transit, and are apt to have child-care responsibilities. These make employment opportunities closer to home more attractive, so that women constitute a captive labour pool for employment in lower-paid and often sex-segregated occu

Category: Psychology - W