Maternity challenges in Australia

| February 5, 2008

Does Australia need paid maternity leave? What would a national overhaul of the childcare system look like? How can we encourage a better corporate understanding of motherhood issues? We invite you to participate in an Australia-wide attempt to create a collaborative, coherent and informed proposal for a unified, national response to the most pressuring issues facing motherhood today.

Being a mother in a society which emphasises economic performance over all other values is a challenge. Yet, the economic realities of motherhood are closely connected to Australia's falling birth rate. They extend beyond the debate of whether the nation should support working mothers through paid maternity leave entitlements.

– – Do we need paid maternity leave? 

– – Do we need a national overhaul of Australia's childcare system? What would this overhaul look like?

– – Does Australia need a better corporate understanding of motherhood issues?

Help us develop a policy proposal to address the most pressuring issues facing Australian mothers today. You can contribute by posting your comment to this forum, creating your own blog or taking part in our new survey "Myths & Facts of Motherhood".

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Being a mother in a society which emphasises economic performance over all other values is a challenge. Yet, the economic realities of motherhood are closely connected to Australia's falling birth rate. They extend beyond the debate of whether the nation should support working mothers through paid maternity leave entitlements.

Childcare cost and availability have long figured among the most prominent issues in enabling young families to meet the challenges of owning a home and raising a family at the same time. Indeed, childcare is arguably one of the most serious infrastructure problems young mothers are facing when making a decision to go back to work. The disintegration (or, in the case of recent migrants, the absence) of tight family networks to take on the supporting role and alleviate the pressure is not helping the issue.

In other parts of the industrialised world, the childcare problem is partially addressed through the introduction of nanny-visas to help families in need of full-time childcare access affordable, live-in carers through migration. However, such provisions are made in addition to (and not to the exclusion of) paid maternity leave.

That the economic context of the idea of a man as a bread-winner, and woman as a carer and home-maker is long gone seems not to have struck a cord with policy-makers. The message such a stance sends is that the burden, the cost and the responsibility for child rearing should, in large part, rest on the shoulders of women, where families are seen through the prism of a different economic paradigm and a vastly different social structure of the by-gone times.

There is no doubt that a coherent policy on maternity challenges is one that needs to be confronted on the national political scene. Open Forum would like to invite you to participate in a nation-wide attempt to create a collaborative, coherent and informed proposal for a unified, national response to the most pressuring issues facing motherhood today.

  • Do we need paid maternity leave?
  • What are the ways of negotiating equal rights for all mothers?
  • Do we need a national overhaul of Australia's childcare system and what would this overhaul look like?
  • Should serious provisions be made for overseas nannies to access the Australian market in order to address the shortage of childcare?
  • Does Australia need a better corporate understanding of motherhood issues?

We invite you to create a better future for the mothers of Australia.

RELATED LINKS

  5. “What to make of the stay-at-home Dad?” – By Alison Gordon  
  6. "What to expect from maternity leave" – by Catherine Fritz-Kalish
  7. “A big disappointment” – by Alison Gordon
  8. "What about Dad?" – by Jeanne-Vida Douglas
  9. "A mother's work is never done" – by Allison Tait, ninemsn.com
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0 Comments

  1. businescares

    April 2, 2008 at 5:17 am

    Childcare is a business and

    Childcare is a business and the providers are professionals. The childcare providers will have rules, regulations, work schedules' and pay rates for the care provided. The provider will take his/her own time to create a handbook, contract, and other details that help to foster communications and understanding. Most parents think childcare is a baby-sitting service. This is a misconception, as childcare is a profession as any other.

    http://www.daycaresurvey.com

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