- Gender pay gap hurting fertility: study
- The Age - AAP
- 09/12/2008 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 264 articles in 2008 )
The gender pay gap is impacting on Australia's birth rate, new research suggests.
The number of women working and the hours they work have been on the rise during the past decade, in contrast to the static rate for men, the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found.
Despite this, women continue to earn, on average, eight per cent less than men, a gap slightly wider than a decade ago.
The research shows women also take on the majority of family responsibilities, which is affecting decisions to have children.
Research author Lixia Qu said some couples defer or have fewer children than they desire while others cope by having one parent, usually the mother, reduce paid work hours.
"Ultimately strategies aimed at reducing family size will affect a nation's total fertility rate," Dr Qu said.
Institute director Alan Hayes says society and workplaces have not kept up with the increasing number of women in bread-winning roles.
"And women are bearing the burden," he said.
The number of women working and the hours they work have been on the rise during the past decade, in contrast to the static rate for men, the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found.
Despite this, women continue to earn, on average, eight per cent less than men, a gap slightly wider than a decade ago.
The research shows women also take on the majority of family responsibilities, which is affecting decisions to have children.
Research author Lixia Qu said some couples defer or have fewer children than they desire while others cope by having one parent, usually the mother, reduce paid work hours.
"Ultimately strategies aimed at reducing family size will affect a nation's total fertility rate," Dr Qu said.
Institute director Alan Hayes says society and workplaces have not kept up with the increasing number of women in bread-winning roles.
"And women are bearing the burden," he said.
Source: https://news.theage.com.au/national/gender-pay-gap-hurting-fertility-study-20081210-6v2b.html
1Will not be visible to public.
2Receive notification of other comments posted for this article. To cease notification after having posted click here.
3To make a link clickable in the comments box enclose in link tags - ie.<link>Link</link>.
4To show an image enclose the image URL in tags - ie.<image>https://fredspage.com/box.jpg</image>. Note: image may be resized if too large
To further have your say, head to our forum Click Here
To contribute a news article Click Here
To view or contribute a Quote Click Here