Changing the conversation
One of the most significant social trends of the 20th and 21st centuries has been the move of mothers into paid work. Our system has not kept pace with these changes in parental employment. It is fundamentally inadequate with respect to how it supports and enables the combination of caring and working.
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The conversation around supporting parents to manage work and care has, to date, been largely focused on the provision of additional childcare to encourage more parents to re-enter the workforce and to work a greater number of hours.
At Parents Work Collective, we believe that encouraging parents to work additional hours and outsource the care of their children is not the best solution for all families. This solution makes busy lives even busier. It reduces the time parents have to connect with their children and devalues the care a parent or guardian can provide. It increases stress and pressure. It fails to recognise the critical role of secure attachment between parents and their children.
We are passionate about advocating for support for parents to be able to care for their own children in the early years. Beyond that, we want families to be able to continue to work part-time for as long as they choose to do so, so they can manage the significant demands of caring for their children and working productively. We are passionate about all parents – of all genders –
equally sharing in working and caring for their children. We want to see real value being placed on the critical work that is parenting.
Vision
We are working to dismantle the structures that penalise parents, mainly women, for engaging in unpaid care work. We are advocating for a significant overhaul of family policy and workplace culture. Remunerating parents for care work and empowering caregivers is critical to achieving gender equality. We envision a dual earner carer society. This is a future where all parents can share equally in working and caring for their children.
Our Policy Positions
1. Increased financial support for parents to be able to care for their own children in the early years of their children’s lives (rather than have to outsource childcare and return to paid work)​
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2. More flexibility for parents who work, so that they can better balance work and parenting​
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3. More input from caregivers into policy decisions and legislative reform​
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4. More community support for parents so that they are less isolated (helping to create the “village”)​
