Where are the women warriors on Paid Maternity Leave?
12-March-2010
The most extensive, economically significant policy proposal to support working women in decades is put forward by a major political party… so where are the feminists and women’s groups?
Why is there such a conspicuous silence from those who “whooped” and figuratively threw streamers when the Rudd Government finally announced its Paid Parental Leave plan (which turned out to be little more than a re-badging of the baby bonus with an administrative nightmare for small business thrown in)?
Where is Eva Cox and Sharan Burrows?
The Coalition’s proposal for six months paid leave, paid at the woman’s rate of pay, as a business-funded workplace entitlement rather than a government-funded welfare payment, is a huge step forward and a significant contribution to the advancement of working women. This is no tinkering around the edges tokenism.
So why aren’t the traditional women’s “champions” at least engaging in the debate?
It’s a bit baffling.
I spent all of last year meeting with women across the country in my former role as Shadow Minister for Women. There is no doubt that balancing work and family is the most pressing issue most women face - and I’d hazard a guess it’s also high up on most men’s lists as well.
So if we’re to introduce a paid parental leave scheme as a nation – let’s make it one that is significant and relevant to today’s working world. Not some cobbled together minimum wage deal that delivers little more than the baby bonus, less than most women earn, and that is benevolently provided by the Government and viewed as a form of “middle class welfare”.
Tony Abbott was spot on when he said that having a child is as much a part of life as going on holidays, getting sick and retiring – contingencies all planned for in the workplace. If as a society we want to encourage the full participation of women in the workplace we have to get over the antiquated idea that children are some sort of “lifestyle choice” not worthy of widespread support.
Four weeks sunning on a beach in Fiji is a lifestyle choice – and it can essentially be supported with paid leave each year! Of course, holidays are vital for our health and well-being.
Well, guess what? So is bonding and recuperation time after childbirth. It’s vital for both mother and baby - and experts all agree that 6 months is about right as a minimum for optimum health and well-being.
So why is there such enormous pressure on working women to return to work shortly after giving birth? For most, it’s an economic imperative (hence 6 months at normal pay sorts that out) and for others there’s an implied suggestion that they’re somehow “slacking off” if they take any significant leave. Again, 6 months mandatory paid leave signifies the importance of this minimum period and sends a clear message to employers on what should be expected.
On that note, big businesses are understandably opposed to the proposal because the funding will come from a 1.7% levy on around the 1% of Australian companies with taxable incomes over $5 million a year.
It’s an unavoidable way of introducing a serious Paid Parental Leave Scheme. And it will quickly become part of the modern industrial relations landscape.
As Industry Shadow Minister I’m certainly working on policies that will help mitigate the impact of this new levy on big business. Tony Abbott has committed to looking at company tax rates as soon as is fiscally responsible when in Government. The Coalition has an exemplary track record in this regard – lowering the company tax rate from 36% to 30% and introducing a range of capital gains tax reforms.
But it’s time to be serious, as a community and a society, about what we demand of women.
28% of all Generation X & Y women have a Bachelor or higher degree, compared with 21% of men in these age groups. Women are expected to be the middle and high income earners of the future.
We can’t address the inequitable numbers of women on boards, we can’t complain about pay inequality, and we can’t moan about the pressures of being a “super woman” unless we stop being martyrs and claim as normal a “biological birth right” of adequate time with our babies after birth. It’s not an indulgence.
After all, our babies aren’t just “ours” – they are the taxpayers and citizens of tomorrow. They are not merely a lifestyle choice or a personal experience. They are the future.
And employers have got to face reality – women are sensational workers, but most women will have children. The average is only 1.9 these days, so it’s not going to be happening annually like those holidays to Fiji.
Surely it’s not too much to ask that our modern workplace is geared towards that modest “inconvenience” in order to support families? Incidentally, those families include men – so it’s not just women and children reaping the benefits, but also the blokes who love them.
And if we change the way society thinks about working women and babies, if we make workplaces more family-friendly, then maybe we’ll see more fathers taking up the mantle of caring for their children while they are young?
If women are more supported and encouraged to build and maintain their careers, many couples may find that it suits them better financially for the father to take a few years out or work part time to help balance family obligations.
Surely that’s a good thing for both men and women? Surely that’s the Utopia many of the women’s groups and feminists aspire to?
The first step is a fair dinkum, workplace-based paid maternity leave plan. The Coalition has stepped up to the mark. But where are the women warriors?