Working Fathers: Episode 1

Our starting point is the large gender gap in time spent directly caring for children in economically developed and relatively gender egalitarian societies like Australia. Things aren’t what they were 50 years ago. Mothers, particularly of younger children, are more likely to do paid work than they were in the past. But it’s still quite rare for men to be the primary carer of their children. Mothers, on average, still do the bulk of the childcare and the domestic labour, while fathers still tend towards the breadwinner role. In this episode, we go beyond this familiar fact to look at how our still-traditional division of labour shakes out in terms of rewards, responsibilities and risks: from the mental load of keeping a family running, unappealing household chores and the more joyful moments of parenting, to the economic impacts for mothers.

Our guests in this episode are Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy, Professor Leah Ruppanner and Professor Miranda Stewart.

Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy, University of Melbourne

Carla Pascoe Leahy is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Lecturer in Family History at the University of Tasmania, Joint Editor of Studies in Oral History journal, an Associate of the Contemporary Histories Research Group and an Honorary Associate at Museums Victoria.

Twitter: @C_PascoeLeahy

Facebook

Explore more of Carla’s work:

• Carla Pascoe Leahy. ‘Paid work and care work: Policy shifts and maternal experiences since the 1970s’, Australian Policy History Conference, Deakin University, 12–14 June 2019, broadcast on ABC Radio Big Ideas
• Carla Pascoe Leahy. ‘Mothers explain how they navigated work and childcare, from the 1970s to today’, The Conversation, 27 May 2019. 

 Professor Leah Ruppanner – University of Melbourne

Leah Ruppanner is a Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab at the University of Melbourne. She was previously a Director of The Policy Lab at the University of Melbourne. Her research investigates gender and its intersection to inequalities, technologies and policies.

Twitter: @leahrupanner

Website

Explore more of Leah’s work:

• Liana Christin Landivar, William J Scarborough, Leah Ruppanner, Caitlyn M Collins, and Lloyd Rouse. ‘Remote Schooling and Mothers’ Employment During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Race, Education, and Marital Status’, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9(3) (May 2023): 134–158. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.3.06.
• Jill E Yavorsky and Leah Ruppanner, ‘An Argument for Universal Preschool and Childcare in the U.S.’, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 41(3) (2022): 922–929.
  DOI: 10.1002/pam.22399.

Professor Miranda Stewart, Melbourne Law School

Miranda Stewart is Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne Law School where she is Director of the Tax Group and is a Fellow at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University. Miranda was the inaugural Director of the Institute from 2014 to 2017.

Twitter: @AusTaxProf

Website

Explore more of Miranda’s work:

• Miranda Stewart (ed). Tax, Social Policy and Gender: Rethinking Equality and Efficiency. ANU Press, 2017.
• Miranda Stewart. ‘”Are you two interdependent?” Family, Property and Same-sex couples in Australia’s Superannuation Regime’, Sydney Law Review 28(3) (2006): 437–476 (A*).

The transcript for Episode 1, including links to articles and reports, can be found here.