Listening Tour Diary
Thinking about how change happens
4 December 2007
Two more events as part of the NSW Listening Tour this afternoon have left me thinking about some key questions and I’m keen to hear what you think.
We had a focus group with some men working in financial services this afternoon and it became clear to me again that engaging men in the dialogue around gender equality is a critical part of our work. The men told me about the pressure they felt around being the breadwinner. This pressure was born out of financial necessity, including the cost of childcare and housing, as well as social expectations placed on men.
Work intensification was an issue for the men, and it was apparent that the competitive nature of paid work was having an impact on how flexible work practices could be implemented, particularly in times of high work pressure such as the end of the financial year. There was an example from one man who was able to negotiate an agreement with management which allowed him to work from home and partake in family caring responsibilities. Management agreed that his performance would be assessed by the results that he would achieve, rather that the time that he put in to the job. This was an embryonic change in the big scheme of things but it represents the start of change.
I left this focus group asking myself some questions which I will put out to you:
How can we engage men on the gender equality agenda?
How can we give a platform and voice to the silent majority of men who support gender equality?
We held a public consultation in the CBD this evening and some more interesting questions came to the fore. Participants raised issues such as how we can make flexibility a universal practice, the problems of the individual complaints process under the Sex Discrimination Act and the legal response to women experiencing violence.
One interesting point from this consultation has stuck in my mind and it relates to how we can bring about attitudinal change on flexibility in the paid workplace. It might be useful to look at how attitudes towards climate change shifted. At first, the attitude about climate change was that we couldn’t afford to do something because of the impact on the economy. We have now reached a point of urgency where the attitude has changed - we now can’t afford not to do something about climate change. I think that we are close to point of urgency around flexible work practices with Australia’s ageing workforce and impending skills shortage. We are in a position where we simply can’t afford not to implement flexibility in the workplace.
Some more questions for you:
Do you think we are at the tipping point with change around flexibility in the paid workplace?
How do you think this change will happen?
I look forward to hearing some of your ideas on these questions.
That’s all from me for now.
Liz
Katelin Said,
December 14, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
Hey Liz,
The question of how to involve men is not as complicated as it seems. We need to keep the positive messages of shared parenting responsibilities flowing to the media. There have been a number of features in weekend newspapers this year that highlight the great rewards new parents are gaining from sharing the load.
Although there is still very much a ”back-patting” culture underpining the majority of stay-at-home dad stories, I really believe this will subside as more fathers take time out of their working lives to share the committment.
I am absolutely behind a paid maternity scheme for Australia, but I believe the way to tackle the problem of men feeling the weight of expectation to work is to legislate for paid PARENTAL leave where both parties have access to similar periods of leave. When it is written in law I think you will see a more rapid decline in the stigma attached to stay at home parenting and a move towards true equality of caring responsibilities between the genders.( I believe too that this will have ramifications for caring responsibilities of older family members, but that is another thing altogether).
I also think we need to look at the European countries where this type of PARENTAL leave has already been enshrined in law.
We really need to get the message out there that this system of PARENTAL leave really does work-dads don’t have to feel the weight of societal expectation and pressure as the breadwinner - kids need both parents in their lives in equal measure.
We need to start providing real-life, concrete examples of the positive effects PARENTAL leave has for both parents and children for people to examine and take on board.Then we the scientific evidence of positive outcomes to back it up.
I think the listening tour is a top idea - I’ll keep my eye out for a visit to Wollongong.
Thanks,
Katelin
Anonymous Said,
December 21, 2007 @ 2:51 pm
It will always be painfully obvious that sex discrimination is defined by all government departments such as this as discrimination only against women.
Furthermore the real propaganda aims of all such commissions can be clearly seen by the government advertising campaigns proporting that all men with small penises are reckless drivers, all men are abusive to their partners and the reverse is never the case. You might as well say ‘To violence against men, Australia doesn’t care’.
Duc Said,
January 21, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
I believe any change of culture must start from youth. I mean the equality needs to be taught at school to children. It is the age that we can build a new generation with new values. I am originated from Asian culture and we have the proverb that says “To grow a person, we need 100 years”; this means we have to spend one generation to build for the next.
The equality can also be established by changing the law (e.g. Flexible work opportunity; parental leave; carer leave; E.O. in the workplace, etc). We can also disseminate the equality to the public through the media. But all of those laws and propaganda may not be able to take roots in our society unless young children are well educated for good attitudes and good behaviours.