Gender equality and paid parental leave in Australia: A decade of giant leaps or baby steps?

Abstract

The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Australian Paid Parental Leave Act 2010. Using Baird’s orientations typology and Brighouse and Wright’s equality framework, with evidence from the Workplace Agreements Database and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, this article assesses changes in policy, bargaining and company provisions over the decade. We find that policy changes may enable more fathers and partners to take leave, although the period is short and barriers to uptake exist. In bargaining and company policy, we find modest growth in the proportion of agreements with paid primary and paid secondary carer leave provisions, but no movement in the duration of the leaves, with secondary carer leave much shorter. We conclude that although these changes suggest growing attention to improving women’s working conditions and fathers’ access to parental leave, short secondary carer leaves set normative standards of fathers as ‘supporters’ rather than recognising substantive involvement in care. Consequently, the changes do not promote gender-egalitarian sharing of parental leave. While the introduction of the government scheme was a ‘giant leap’, the 10 years since have seen modest ‘baby steps’ towards greater gender equality in the availability and potential use of paid parental leave.

Workplace gender equality in the post-pandemic era: Where to next?

“…Gender norms in relation to who works and who cares remain surprisingly sticky and are unlikely to shift without regulatory intervention. Writing in 2020, on the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the national paid parental leave system in Australia, Baird et al (2021) argue that the current Australian system contemplates fathers as 'supporters' of mother carers rather than as substantive carers themselves. To build fathers' access, and to break down normative standards of mothers as (ideal) carers and fathers as (ideal) breadwinners, they recommend extending the period of parental leave available to couples and adding features to incentivise couples to share the leave to care for children more equally.…”

Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2021

“…Prior to this, Australia had lagged behind as one of only two OECD countries without a national paid parental leave scheme (together with the US). Over the decade, there has been progress in improving parents’ paid and unpaid leave entitlements including introducing ‘Dad and Partner Pay’ in 2013; broadening eligibility requirements and increasing flexibility in taking paid and unpaid parental leave in 2020; and most recently in 2021, extending compassionate leave to miscarriage in the Fair Work Act (see Baird et al, 2021; Foley and Williamson, 2021; Parliament of Australia, 2021). However, over the decade there has been neither structural change in the national scheme nor progress toward equality for parents on other measures (Baird et al, 2021).…”

“…Over the decade, there has been progress in improving parents’ paid and unpaid leave entitlements including introducing ‘Dad and Partner Pay’ in 2013; broadening eligibility requirements and increasing flexibility in taking paid and unpaid parental leave in 2020; and most recently in 2021, extending compassionate leave to miscarriage in the Fair Work Act (see Baird et al, 2021; Foley and Williamson, 2021; Parliament of Australia, 2021). However, over the decade there has been neither structural change in the national scheme nor progress toward equality for parents on other measures (Baird et al, 2021). In 2019-20, 52.4% of employers offered paid parental leave for ‘primary’ carers and 46.4% for ‘secondary’ carers on top of the national scheme, the highest proportion of employers in seven years, but women still comprised the majority (93.5%) of people taking primary carer's leave (WGEA, 2020a).…”

“…At the same time, 2021 demonstrated an increasing appetite for change, with some large employers providing gender-neutral parental leave (McIlroy, 2021). Advocates and researchers simultaneously called for structural reform to the national scheme, such as equal access to paid parental leave for all parents; increasing its duration and level; and providing superannuation on paid parental leave (Baird et al, 2021; Lyons, 2021).…”

“I've got more of a role to play”: Australian fathers’ perspectives on parenting through the lens of COVID-19 lockdown.

“…The Australian government currently offers 2 weeks of parental leave for fathers and 18 weeks for mothers (Baird et al, 2021). Although it is labeled “parental leave,” if the father is the primary carer, the birth mother has to apply and transfer her leave entitlements to the father (Baird & O’Brien, 2015), thereby contributing to the disparity on how men and women are valued in the workplace (Pennington, 2020).…”