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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://psnews.com.au/2018/11/26/the-big-squeeze-the-multiple-pressures-on-working-mums/">https://psnews.com.au/2018/11/26/the-big-squeeze-the-multiple-pressures-on-working-mums/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222;letter-spacing:-.25pt">Australia - The Multiple Pressures on Working Mothers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><i><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Angela Priestley</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">* says much more needs to be done to engage and retain women in the workforce, to offer more realistic
flexibility and to promote real job sharing in leadership roles.</span></i><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222"> </span><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#444444"><img border="0" width="250" height="194" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D4A936.91E8D3B0" alt="https://psnews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/626wil5.jpg"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#444444">Photo: runzelkorn<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#444444"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#444444">26 November, 2018 -
</span><b><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">I hear it over and</span></b><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222"> <b>over again.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Mothers of young children questioning if the professional careers they have invested years in are worth pursuing — but also questioning how they will pay their rent or mortgage if they give it up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">They are feeling the pressure to “do it all” because there is nobody else available, whether they are single parents or not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">They are sleeping less than at any point in their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Exercise or any consideration for their own physical or mental health disappeared years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt;background:white">
<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">They are deducting the cost of childcare from their already diminished salaries and then calculating the depressing difference that’s left over.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">They are rushing, constantly, and often in a state of perpetual jetlag, whether it’s to catch a train, to get to the next meeting, to after-school pick-up or to day care in time to avoid the penalty
fees for arriving late.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">They are organising kids’ birthday parties in the wee hours of the morning, holiday activities and various craft projects required for school.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">This is the great squeeze affecting many working mothers, and a good reason why a number will exit the paid workforce altogether.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">It’s part of the reason women are working part-time at twice the rate of men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">It contributes to why women continue to earn considerably less than men (and therefore retire with half the superannuation).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">It’s why women are currently contributing $345 billion in <i>unpaid</i> childcare work every year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">And it could just be a major reason why Australia is ranked number one across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries for women’s educational attainment, but 55th
on workforce participation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Yet the above is happening despite the fact a lot has changed for mothers in Australia, most notably that mothers are vastly more educated now that even just two decades ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">A number of stats from the 2016 Census tell the story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">The proportion of mothers with post-school qualifications has greatly increased since 1996, from less than a quarter (23.2 per cent) to more than half (51.5 per cent).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Still the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found the most common occupations for full-time working mothers hasn’t changed all that much during, with “general clerk performing admin duties” remaining
unchanged since 2011, along with “sales assistant” for part-time working mothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Meanwhile, we also know that women are having babies later, possibly because they’re investing in their education and putting those initial years into their careers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">The median age of a first-time mum is now 30.5, up from 29 in 2011 and a massive shift from 30 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">And we know that many of these same women are also taking on unpaid caring responsibilities beyond their own children, including their parents, grandparents and those with a disability.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">These mothers not only feel squeezed when it comes to the amount of time they have during a single day, but also when it comes to achieving their career ambitions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Take a little time out, and you’ll feel squeezed when it comes to the skills you’re perceived to have available.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Take a number of years out, and you could very well feel squeezed out of leadership positions, or from finding a job back in your industry sector at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Additional pressures will come up — including the push to fill those skills gaps, to possibly get another degree or to change careers altogether — further squeezing the time they have available.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">In 2016, 114,800 mothers reported on the Census they are working, studying <i>and</i> caring for kids under 15.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Then there’s the squeeze of potential discrimination.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Data from the Australian Human Rights Commission finds that one in two mothers face discrimination while pregnant, on leave or shortly after returning to work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">But additional new data released by the Commission points to another form of discrimination that may affect these same women: ageism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Almost a third of employers continue to specify an age limit when hiring and more than 30 per cent of those will not employ people over 50.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">These employers are clearly missing out on excellent talent by so stringently limiting the pool they have available — and they are discriminating in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt;background:white">
<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">It’s a form of discrimination that shows the squeeze is on for mothers, particularly those who take lengthy periods out to care for others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Many recruiters are overlooking women’s CVs due to the career gaps, giving little consideration to the skills and experiences they’ve acquired while raising children, and the fact they don’t have
the “right” kind of career trajectory or may be seen as lacking skills.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Despite the rhetoric coming from large employers that they are supporting working parents, the reality is that too many mothers still feel little choice but to opt out of the professions they spent
years investing in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">For many employers, much of the focus is on retaining women who leave to have children — offering paid parental leave, coaching and other incentives to aid a mother’s return to work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">But this really only helps at a certain stage, and for those who have the means available to make that return in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Many women are also excluded from such employer benefits in the first place: there is a big difference between working for a large employer or Government Department and a small business or startup.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Much more needs to be done to engage and retain women taking longer periods out, to offer more realistic flexibility, promote real job sharing in leadership roles, and to reframe success as being
based on outcomes, rather than hours spent in an office or even logging in from home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt;background:white">
<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Employers must also rethink the limits of their own hiring practices and the bias — unconscious or otherwise — that’s coming through when it comes to assessing a CV or meeting a candidate in person.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Does five or even 10 years out of the workforce really need to cancel out a mother’s potential?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Would investing in bridging programs or further education for women looking to re-enter the workforce be just as beneficial as the investments made in paid parental leave?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt;background:white">
<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Right now, there is no ideal time for a mother, or a woman who is thinking about having children, to also have a career.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">It’s time we took the pressure off mothers to try to fix the situation and get employers and policymakers working on solutions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:.25in;line-height:18.0pt;background:white">
<i><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">* <b>Angela Priestley</b> is the Founding Editor of </span></i><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#222222">Women’s Agenda<i>. </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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