A new report has confirmed that mothers continue to do the lion’s share of unpaid domestic and child care work in Australia. Fathering in Australia Among Young Couple Families with Young Children by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) shows that fathers in couple families do less than 30% of unpaid domestic work and only marginally more of the child caring.
Minister for the Status of Women Ms Kate Ellis said that boosting women’s involvement in the paid workforce requires that more domestic and caring duties at home be undertaken by men. “This report reveals that some 63.7% of fathers believed that work responsibilities have caused them to miss out on home or family activities that they would have liked to take part in. There is no doubt that we need to do more, as government, business and as a community, to give both genders the flexibility they need to achieve a fairer balance of caring and domestic duties,” Ms Ellis said.
The Report also shows that 63% of fathers felt that their family responsibilities had not had a negative impact on their work in terms of their ability to take on work activities. Minister for Families Ms Jenny Macklin said that it was unlikely that working mothers would have the same experience. “Anecdotally we certainly know that working mothers do face obstacles in balancing their work and family responsibilities.”
