Our CEO Emma Walsh recently participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Grattan Institute and the State Library Victoria which focused on improving female participation in the workforce.
Increasing female workforce participation is one of the biggest long-term economic opportunities for governments. Australia’s female workforce participation rate is above the OECD average, but Australian women are much more likely to work part-time than their overseas counterparts. Before COVID-19, a typical Australian woman with pre-teenage children worked 2.5 days per week.
Is this what women want? Why do the work patterns of mothers look so different from those of fathers? Why is part-time work so common for Australian women compared to women in other developed countries? How has COVID-19 changed the equation? And what can governments do to reduce the barriers for women who want to do more paid work?
In this 1 hour webinar recording the panel addresses all these questions and more. The panel included:
· Miranda Stewart – Professor and Director of Tax at Melbourne University Law School
· Emma Walsh – CEO, Parents At Work
· Danielle Wood – CEO, Grattan Institute
· Moderator Paul Austin – Editor, Grattan Institute
The discussion share the latest report by the Grattan Institute which revealed statistics of the current state of play around what influences and challenges women’s participation in the workforce. Childcare was a hot topics as Emma comments:
“Childcare isn’t a benefit or a ‘nice to have’ – it’s an essential service for many workplaces to operate. It’s a shared problem and we all have skin in the game with it so should therefore all solve for it.”
For a copy of the report tap here.
WATCH the webinar by tapping on the image below.
