Presented by the School of Social Science and School of Political Science and International Studies, UQ and the QUT Work/Industry Futures Research Program, 19-20 June, 2018.
Convened by Dr Michelle Brady (UQ), Professor Gillian Whitehouse (UQ), Professor Paula McDonald (QUT) and Professor Greg Marston (UQ).
The impact of changing technology on employment is one of the biggest challenges societies will face in the 21st Century. While technological change is not new and there is no consensus among analysts about the ways in which current developments will impact on particular jobs and occupations, there is general agreement that robots, advanced AI and new employment platforms are significantly changing the nature of work and will continue to do so into the future. These major transformations offer opportunities for individuals and companies but also pose major social risks, including increased precarity, unequal wealth distribution and associated economic insecurity. Such risks need to be appropriately governed. Current social divisions and trends, including changing gender roles and demographic shifts such as an aging population, will also shape the patterns of risks and benefits. This symposium brings together major national and international social researchers (UK, USA, Sweden) to systematically examine how employment rights, risks and rewards are being redistributed and to reflect on the most appropriate systems of social support to protect against new and emerging risks.
4. Social support, social reproduction and the future of work
Synopsis
This session will reflect on the most appropriate systems of social support to protect against new and emerging risks in the context of changing gender roles and the changing nature of work. Professors Asa Lundqvist, Gillian Whitehouse, Greg Marston together with Associate Professor Kay Cook and Drs Michelle Brady and Robyn Mayes will examine the kind of social support needed to support equality including gender equality including a consideration of the role of the temporary migration system in social production.
Speakers
Social support and future prospects for a gender equal working life
Presenter: Professor Asa Lundqvist
The advancement of affluent welfare states has changed the living conditions of the many in remarkable ways. One such significant change has been the transformation of families, gender relations and working life, where the prevalent and deep-seated male breadwinner model of the post-war period has been largely undermined and substituted by a pattern of dual breadwinning. This is the case throughout the Western world, also in Sweden.
In contemporary Sweden, men and women are in paid work to largely the same extent. The high employment ratio was made possible in part by the development of the system of publicly funded childcare. The myriad of family and gender equality policy reforms over the last half century have also changed the fundamental circumstances of families with children. Men are increasingly active participants in family life, even in the early childhood years, partly as a consequence of the introduction of the parental insurance in 1974 and the subsequently instituted ‘daddy months’ – a period of paid parental leave set aside for fathers. Thus the family has long been the object of comprehensive political reform, notably within the realm of social and family policies – but also within the realm of active labour market policies.
The growing labour shortage of the post-war era, which had become dire by the 1960s, had profound impact on increasing the employment ratio among women. In parallel, the full employment policy had become firmly established in Sweden, which in turn contributed to the introduction of active labour market policies and the embedding of discourses and practices concerning the gainful employment of women in an overarching political notion of the centrality of paid work in the welfare state.
Together, these policies were the driving forces behind the rapid growth of the share of women in the Swedish labour force already in the 1960s, transforming gender and family relations towards a “dual earner family model”. How was this development made possible in practice? What actions and activities were put in motion to encourage women to engage in paid work, and consequently leave the life as a housewife? What measures were taken, and by whom? And what consequences did the activation policies had for contemporary working life?
In my presentation I point to the particular importance of activation policies to understand and explain the increase in the numbers of women in the labour market. Early activation policies targeted not only women’s paid employment but also gender and family relations more broadly, emphasising the role of gender equality in the transformation of society.
Hence, this presentation is about how the activation of women into paid work was accomplished: On what ideational grounds, and using what concrete measures, were the conditions created for increasing the employment ratio of women – thus also for a farewell to male breadwinning? I also ask how these measures and underpinning ideas shape current labour market patterns? In which occupations do we find gainfully employed women today? What are the cleavages between different groups of women in the labour market? And what are the future prospects for a gender equal working life?
Presentation notes (PDF, 2.72MB)
See also her book on this topic.
Social Support for Parental Employment: reconstructing policy for gender equality and a future labour force
Presenters: Dr Michelle Brady (University of Queensland), Professor Gillian Whitehouse (University of Queensland), Associate Professor Kay Cook (Swinburne)
This presentation agues for a increased focus on “policy packages” of social support and how these are experienced by mothers and fathers, rather than focusing on single policies, such as child care. Furthermore, in the context of changing forms of employment there is a need to better understand how these intersecting with experiences of “policy packages”, particularly at “critical lifecourse transitions” (Birth of child, particularly first child; Parental separation or loss of a spouse; Youngest child starting school).
Presentation notes (PDF, 241KB)
Basic income, ‘post-work’ politics and the future of work
Presenter: Professor Greg Marston (University of Queensland)
Presentation notes (PDF, 820KB)
Au Pairs at work in Australia: temporary migration, social reproduction and the future of work
Presenter: Dr Robyn Mayes, QUT Business School
Increasing numbers of families in Britain and Europe are turning to au pairs to provide a range of domestic services, often in support of the ‘host mother’s’ pursuit of paid employment. According to the Cultural Au Pair Association of Australia (CAPAA) au pair agencies in Australia are unable to meet the rising demand. The increasing use of au pairs on the part of middle-class Australian families is enabled through the Working Holiday Maker visa program. Under this program people between 18 and 30 years of age from designated countries visit Australia for 12 months and support themselves through short-term employment. Not surprisingly, this visa is criticised for providing a ‘back door’ supply of low paid workers to support the Australian economy. This paper explores this ‘back door’ labour in relation to Australian child care and migration policy and the future of work.
In doing so the paper extends discussion of the future of work to include the to-date-neglected arenas of both paid and unpaid social reproduction.
Presentation notes (PDF, 1.04MB)
See also Dr Mayes' article on why we need to pay attention to the role of au pairs in the future of work in Australia