Work and family data

Posted by Jenni Colwill on 11 November 2008 | 0 Comments

There is still no word from the government about their intentions regarding paid maternity leave. Perhaps we should remind them of the work done by Access Economics for the 2006 House of Representatives Inquiry into balancing work and family.

The 2006 Inquiry's report makes interesting reading. It looks at the effect of women's education on Australia's economic growth. Basically, they found there were more women gaining post school qualifications than men, and increasing numbers of women were entering the workforce. I don't think that situation has changed since 2006.

The researchers, Access Economics, found that improving women's participation could add 2.8 to 4.4 per cent to national income - this would lead to benefits in more tax being paid and therefore more money for everyone.

Another theme of the report is the failure to make child care expenses tax deductible. It states that this is a barrier to women wanting to return to the paid workforce, and a definite reason to not start families.

But what interests me most is that the report acknowledges the major role women now have in the economy. The Access Economics research anticipated a slowdown in economic growth, not as a result of USA's financial stuff up but as a result of the ageing of the Australian workforce. They recommended that Australia needed to lift productivity growth and increase the number of people entering the workforce.

I'm not an economist, but the report is pretty clear. it states Australia's women are too valuable to waste - and their participation choices will make a notable difference to Australia's future prosperity.

At that time, nearly one in four working women held a university degree (increased from one in ten in 1990) and 43% of all new jobs created between 1990 and 2003 went to female graduates.

Sadly, the report focused on market based models of child care - and look where that got us. What a disaster for the market economy driven Liberal party! Big time disaster! If you are interested in reading more on this, check out the article written at the time by Eva Cox, of the Women's Electoral Lobby - you can see it on the Centre for Policy Development website.

The data about the importance of women to the economy is there though - if only the government, and the opposition, cared to notice. It would be even nicer if they cared to act on it. Action could include a determined push to address pay inequity, and perhaps even finally giving Australian women paid maternity leave. Wouldn't that be good!

Dream on, Jenni.