Page 817 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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ACT in 2017. The 2017-18 ACT budget provides additional funding to encourage increased women’s participation in sport.
It is not just sport, though, where women’s participation has undergone transformation. The proportion of women in the ACT participating in the workforce is 69 per cent. At this level it is higher than the overall national participation rate and only slightly lower than the national male participation rate. This means the ACT is at the forefront of the transition taking place across the developed world, where men’s and women’s participation rates are beginning to converge.
At the same time, this transition represents somewhat of a glass ceiling. Around the world, a 70 per cent participation rate seems to be a threshold proving difficult to exceed. There are clearly structural changes needed to completely close the gap between men and women in workforce participation. We could think long and hard about how we go about that, or we could actually ask women what they want, which is precisely what my union, the Community and Public Sector Union, has done this year and in many previous years.
On International Women’s Day, the CPSU released the results of the ninth “what women want” survey. The survey is largely focused on the Australian, ACT and Northern Territory public services and on some private sector workers from companies such as Telstra. Overall the survey found that long hours are impacting on personal relationships and that work, including being contacted outside work hours, was increasingly encroaching on personal lives. At the same time, one-quarter of women care for others on a regular basis. Of those who had dependent children, almost all said they were the primary carer.
It is important to acknowledge the impact this has on female employees. Here is an example of a challenge we must overcome if women are to make a larger contribution to our economy. How are women expected to do more in the workplace while still maintaining their responsibilities in the home? According to women, we can offer more flexibility in the hours worked, ensure access to leave as needed, allow the negotiation of part-time hours, offer opportunities for job sharing and allow working from home. However, there is also a cultural shift required within workplaces, as many respondents were concerned that their career aspirations would be curtailed should they take one of these options. Of course, everyone will start to benefit from us all asking the question about how we can free up more time for the people we love.
This is a great report and gives an insight into some of the challenges women face when participating in our wider society. Women’s participation is such a critical thing. It can help women to become fit and healthy, it can help women to realise their potential and it can help to build a future well into retirement. Most importantly, though, it can help to build lasting relationships and strengthen communities.
The need for these links is particularly apparent when a women enters a new community. I was very fortunate last week to attend the Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services of the ACT International Women’s Day celebration. There were a number of dance performances from migrants from places as diverse as Sierra Leone, Mongolia, China and Fiji, as well as some inspirational speeches given by women
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