Australia Yearbook - 2001

386 Year Book Australia 2001
C6.21a
%
50
EMPLOYMENT RATES OF MARRIED(a) WOMEN WITH CHILDREN, Full-time
40
30
20
1987
1997
10
0
Under 5 5to9 10 to 14 15 to 24
Age of youngest dependent child
(a) Includes those with de facto marriage partners.
Source: Australian Social Trends 1998 (4102.0).
C6.21b
%
50
40
EMPLOYMENT RATES OF MARRIED(a) WOMEN WITH CHILDREN, Part-time
1987
1997
30
20
10
0
Under 5 5to9 10 to 14 15 to 24
Age of youngest dependent child
(a) Includes those with de facto marriage partners.
Source: Australian Social Trends 1998 (4102.0).
Employment
Apart from the periods of unemployment in the
depressions and recessions of the 20th century,
the most significant influences in employment
impacting on children have been increases in
women working (see Characteristics of the
labour force in Chapter 6, Labour, and graphs
C6.21a, C6.21b and C6.22).
The era of ‘liberation’ of women has been
associated with more reaching higher levels of
education, in professional work and in the
workforce generally. Other pressures on women
to work have been changes in community
attitudes to possessions and needs. The increase
in divorce, and consequent rise in single parent
families in financial need, has also been a
factor. The majority of women with young
children now work, either part- or full-time.
Arrangements for child care vary, as does the
quality of this care and so its impact on the
child’s social and physical welfare. In the WA
Child Health Survey, 73% of children had
attended day care by the age of 3 years
(Zubrick, Silburn et al. 1995).
The increase in women working has
decreased the availability of the ‘volunteer’
community workforce, so important for
schools, care of the aged and other activities.
More of this may now need to be provided
by local government (see later).