The Working Dads: Towards Equal Care report shares the experiences of working dads in Melbourne’s west. The report discusses the importance of workplaces supporting men as caregivers and offers 18 actions for workplaces to address gendered issues in workplace cultures.
Gender equality hinges on men taking on their share of the caregiving and workplaces play an important role in facilitating this.
This report, along with existing evidence, shows that men want to participate more in caregiving but are experiencing significant workplace barriers. Even when workplace policies are in place that provide fathers access to flexibility for caregiving and parental leave, workplace culture plays a significant role in creating a gap between policy and practice and impacting fathers’ ability to undertake equitable caring responsibilities.
These workplace cultural barriers are closely tied to traditional rigid gender stereotypes that systemically drive violence against women. The traditional ideal worker norm, that is closely linked to these rigid gendered norms, is playing out in workplace cultures and structures, and impacting men’s access to caregiving. This ultimately impacts women’s equality, economic security, and safety. Workplaces need to address these workplace barriers to enable parents to balance their work and caring responsibilities more equitably.
All workplaces can play a significant role in this work by supporting the implementation of the key recommendations.
