What Tony Abbott owes working mothers

06 February 2015

What do women really want? This is a question that has surely vexed government policy-makers since they first decided to replace Labor’s existing maternity leave scheme (18 weeks’ minimum wage payment) with a more lavish Coalition version (26 weeks’ worth of salary replacement up to $150,000 per annum – later capped at $100,000 – plus super).

It is surely vexing them even at this moment. as they scramble to trade the now-defunct scheme for a vaguely-defined ‘families package’.

It’s a question that preoccupies me, too. As my children have become self-sufficient – my oldest child embarked on her own post-university career just last week – I’ve reflected increasingly on the choices I made as a young, professional mother, my idealism at the time, and the advice I would give my own daughters should they choose to combine children and career.

I’m the product of the same imperfect system we’re still saddled with today, where a working woman who chooses motherhood sets off unwittingly down a path that will drastically alter not just her body and psyche but her career as well. Unconsciously – for how can the expectant mother possibly intuit the upheaval that awaits her? – working mothers commit to an interminable, relentless, colossus of a workload, and to adapting and moulding their own lives to accommodate it.

The rewards of parenthood are immeasurable. But the price that women pay when they become mothers is unjust: lost opportunities for those who’ve taken a break to care for their children; promotional opportunities withheld by employees who believe childcare responsibilities preclude mothers from working high level jobs; wages that don’t keep pace with inflation; gender wage gaps; sparse savings. The consequences are dire, placing Australian women at a higher risk of post-retirement poverty than men. According to a report released by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia last year, women retire with about half as much superannuation men, and one in three has no superannuation at all.

Short of building nurseries alongside their offices, equipping them with full-time nannies and returning to work weeks after the birth, as did Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer, women have very little hope of getting through motherhood with their careers unscathed. For this reason, an efficient and fair maternity leave scheme is fundamental to supporting them as they transition from worker to working mother.

But while such policy forms the backbone of a progressive society in which mothers’ contribution

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What Tony Abbott owes working mothers

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