Posts tagged Work-Life Balance

Working from home: Opportunities but also risks for supporting gender equality

As lockdowns become ‘the new normal’ in Australia, working from home, at least for some workers, is also becoming normalised. While working from home provides many women with the much-needed flexibility they need, there is also potential for a further eroding of gender equality, both in the workplace and the home. In today’s analysis, Sally Moyle (@SallyMoyle) and Helen Innes, both with the National Foundation for Australian Women (@NFAWomen) Gender Lens on the Budget team, explain how the government should be responding to the rapid changes in work-from-home practices. This analysis is drawn from their Federal Budget 2021/22 analysis on work from home policies. You can read a summary of NFAW’s infrastructure analysis here, and an overview of how the budget is analysed here.

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank12 July 2021employment, Flexible Work, COVID-19, Gender equality, Work-Life Balance

What can ABC’s 'Bluey' tell us about Australian family dynamics and work life balance?

Kids’ TV shows can play a number of roles – to entertain, to educate, to challenge and to reassure. Today’s post, written by Dr Briony Lipton (@briony_lipton), examines how the beloved ABC Kids series Bluey, about irrepressible Blue Heeler puppy Bluey and her family, portrays gender and work. Using a scene from the show as its springboard, this piece sheds light on the complex negotiations around work and family roles that are central to contemporary Australian family life.

Issues, Womens Policy Action TankPower to Persuade2 March 2021Gender Inequity, gender pay gap, family, Work-Life Balance

Will the work-from-home genie go back into the bottle?

In an article originally published by The Canberra Times, Dr Sue Williamson and Associate Professor Linda Colley discuss their recently released report Working During the Pandemic: From resistance to revolution. Their research found that the majority of public service employees want to continue the working from home arrangements some workplaces put in place during the coronavirus epidemic, and that while there are negative aspects to working from home, these are far outweighed by the positives. Governments may not find it as easy as they might hope to put this particular genie back in its bottle.

Innovation, Policy and governance, Women's ScorecardPower to Persuade21 October 2020work, Work-Life Balance, coronavirus, public service, Public Servants

Many families must ‘dance’ their way through COVID-19 lockdowns

Marketing managers and academics have been studying how families plan ahead and make decisions about family care and family consumption for a long time. But what happens when planning ahead is not possible? A new study says that when consumers can’t plan ahead...they dance.

Creating using evidence, Policy and governance, IssuesPower to Persuade14 July 2020COVID-19, family, health, Population health, Work-Life Balance

Is she just more organised? Understanding the gendered labour of synchronisation and scheduling

Is there a gendered component to leisure time? Who organises and facilitates it in heterosexual couples? While the reinstatement of the Time use Survey is an important step in understanding how Australians use their time, in today’s analysis Julia Cook (@julia_anne_cook) of University of Newcastle (@Uni_Newcastle) and Dan Woodman (@DrDanWoodman) of University of Melbourne (@unimelbsoc) share the findings from their recently-published paper which utilises an in-depth approach to not only time use but also how time is coordinated and how women and men feel about task-sharing.

Womens Policy Action TankWomen's Policy Action Tank31 October 2019gender, Work-Life Balance, family

Let’s ‘leave loudly’ this International Women’s Day

Laptops, mobile phones and other technological advances have created a workplace culture where employers and employees work around the clock. But more and more workplaces, and a few governments, have stepped in to ensure that work-life balance is protected to maintain productivity and employee wellbeing. UNSW Canberra's Dr Sue Williamson and Dr Meraiah Foley explain why 'leav[ing] early' should be modeled by public sector leaders to encourage healthier work behaviours. This piece was originally published in The Mandarin.

Issues, Policy and governancePower to Persuade6 March 2018Flexperts, Work-Life Balance

Blog

THIS WEEK’S MODERATOR