Parliament House: A tough gig for working mums

Why is parliament so late to the flexible working conditions party? Steph Nash reporting.

If  the  life  of  Liberal  MP,  Sussan  Ley,  were  a  job  advertised  on  Seek,  the  list  of  requirements  for  the  position  would  scare  many.

Job  requirements:

As  far  as  working  mothers  go,  Ley  is  an  extraordinary  example.

She  and  her  husband,  John,  spent  15  years  as  livestock  and  dairy  farmers  in  North  Eastern  Victoria  before  going  their  separate  ways.  After  the  birth  of  her  first  child,  Ley  decided  to  seek  part-­‐time  study  in  economics.  Ten  years  later,  Ley  had  three  degrees  and  three  children  –  a  feat  in  itself  for  a  woman  from  the  country.

In  2001,  she  made  the  bold  switch  to  politics,  waving  good-­‐bye  to  the  farm  and  hello  to  parliamentary  life.

The  days  of  balancing  part-­‐time  study  with  farming  and  family  were  over,  but  the  days  of  constant  travel  and  long  hours  were  just  beginning.

Sussan  Ley  assures  that  she  tried  very  hard  to  be  around  for  her  kids,  but  admits  that  the  parliamentary  working  conditions  made  that  very  difficult  –  especially  as  a  single  parent.

“At  home  I  tried  to  keep  things  as  normal  as  possible.  If  I  could,  I’d  take  the  children  to  school,  get  up  early  to  make  lunches,  and  try  to  be  on  hand  to  help  with  homework  …  But  in  reality,  I  think  the  children  would  remember  that  I  was  away  more  than  I  was  actually  there.”  Ley  says.

Ley  is  in  the  minority  of  female  parliamentarians  who  were  with  young  children  at  the  time  they  entered  politics.  She  is  also  one  of  the  few  women  in  the  current  federal  ministry.

Keeping  in  mind  that  the  number  of  women  in  Australian  executive  roles  is  frighteningly  low,  one  is  compelled  to  question  whether  these  two  facts  are related.

Are  the  demands  of  motherhood  keeping  women  away  from  politics?

Deputy Leader of the Oppostion, Tanya Plibersek, calls for better flexible working arrangments for female parliamentarians.

The  government  is  currently  pushing  for  flexible  working  conditions  in  the  private  sector,  which  aims  to  provide  parents  and  carers  with  better  job  security.  The  Workplace  Gender  Equality  Agency  (WGEA),  a  government-­‐owned  authority,  lists  ‘flexible  working  arrangements’  as  one  of  the  key  indicators  for gender  equality.

But  ‘monkey  see’  may  not  necessarily  mean  ‘monkey  do’.

Parliamentary  life  appears  hard  for  both  mothers  and  fathers,  with  the  current  so-­‐called  ‘flexible’  working  conditions  providing  little  to  no  opportunity  for  parents  to  make  time  for  their  children.

Whilst  the  issue  of  travel  will  ultimately  be  of  strong  concern  for  any  working  parent,  the  assumption  still  exists  that  the  high  rate  of  pay  for  parliamentarians  should  be  enough  for  them  to  seek  external  child  support.

Whilst  there  is  a  childcare  centre  at  Parliament  House,  Labor  Senator,  Claire  Moore,  says  that  this  is  not  always  ideal  for  parliamentary  employees.  She  stresses  that  the  life  of  any  employee  in  an  executive  position  comes  with  huge  responsibilities,  and  that  families  should  discuss  their  options  before  one  or  both  take  up  a  career  as  demanding  as  politics.

“I  think  on  the  element  of  caring  and  family  responsibilities,  this  job  is  not  one  that  is  particularly  good  for  that,”  she  says.

“If  you  want  to  be  in  this  job,  it  has  to  be  a  family  decision.  Your  family  needs  to  be  involved  in  this  decision  because  it  has  a  couple  of  specific  elements.  One  is  the  time  away  from  home.  The  other  is  the  seven-­‐days  per  week  nature  of  the  job.  You  don’t  only  work  when  you’re  in  Canberra.  If  you’re  going  to  be  a  successful  parliamentarian,  you  need  to  be  out  in  your  electorate.  So  you  don’t  have  clearly  defined  on  and  off  hours.”

These  ideas  of  time  and  travel  may  not  only  provide  us  with  an  explanation  for  the  lack  of  mothers  in  parliament,  but  it  might  also  give  us  an  answer  as  to  why  there  are  less  women  in  executive  roles.

Former  Liberal  senator,  Sue  Boyce,  argues  that  parental  leave  could  place  women  at  a  career  disadvantage.  Whilst  the  career  status  of  a  parliamentarian  is  particularly  hard  to  maintain,  completing  enough  work  to  qualify  for  an  executive  position  is  even  harder.

“One  of  the  issues  that  certainly  comes  up  is  that  some  of  the  younger  guys  in  the  party  deliberately  position  themselves  from  perhaps  their  mid-­‐20s  as  to  how  they  are  going  to  become  a  politician  maybe  10-­‐12  years  down  the  track.”  Boyce  says.

“I  don’t  see  that  same  sort  of  positioning  going  on  from  women.  I’ve  seen  a  couple  of  women  who  were  keen  to  do  it  that  way,  but  they  were  seen  as  overly  ambitious  or  pushy.”

Australian  culture  has  inevitably  evolved  from  its  patriarchal  history.  Before  the  Public  Service  Act  was  amended  in  1966,  women  were  forced  to  resign  once  they  were  married.

“You’re  still  expected  to  be  in  Canberra  for  great  slabs  of  time  -­‐  away  on  committee  meetings  and  committee  inquires  for  great  slabs  of  time.  And  we’ve  done  very  little  to  try  and  make  it  more  attractive  for  people  with  families.” – Sue Boyce

These  days,  it  is  not  uncommon  for  women  to  work  full-­‐  or  part-­‐time.  But  it  seems  that  the  expectation  of  the  mother  to  be  the  primary  carer  of  her  children  is  yet  to  escape  the  Australian  psyche.

According  to  the  Australian  Bureau  of  Statistics  (ABS),  fifteen  per  cent  of  families  with  children  under  the  age  of  15  have  a  full-­‐time  working  mother  and  a  part-­‐time  working  or  unemployed  father.

Compare  this  to  families  of  the  same  demographic  with  a  full-­‐time  working  father,  which  is  76  per  cent.

Executive  chair  of  Women  on  Boards,  Ruth  Medd,  complains  that  there  are  not  enough  workplaces  in  Australia  that  challenge  this  gender  pre-­‐conception.  She  says  that  although  policies  exist  to  facilitate  employees  with  young  children,  these  policies  don’t  do  enough  to  target  men  as  well  as  women.

“It  is  clearly  hard  for  women  to  succeed  in  corporate  Australia,  in  the  public  sector,  or  in  academia,  and  one  of  the  clear  reasons  for  that  is  that  the  systems  of  assessment  set  up  are  still  on  the  basis  of  working  full-­‐time  for  35  years.”  Medd  says.

“People  say,  “Mary  isn’t  committed  to  her  job  because  she  has  to  leave  on  Fridays  at  three  to  puck  up  Sally-­‐Anne  and  James”,  whereas  we  all  know  that  the  dads  go  off  to  the  school  sports  day  and  no-­‐one  blinks  an  eye-­‐lid,  generally  speaking.  And  fathers  have  children  too  –  is  that  a  problem  for  their  working  career?  No,  not  at  all.  But  it’s  a  problem  in  some  circumstances  for  women’s  working  careers.”

For  parliament  specifically,  it’s  a  job  in  which  time  and  effort  are  compounded  –  and  it’s  been  that  way  since  federation.

Although  working  conditions  for  parliamentarians  have  improved  over  time,  many  things  have  stayed  the  same,  which  Sue  Boyce  argues  is  a  fundamental reason  why  there  is  a  lack  of  young  mothers  in  the  Lower  House.

The  solution?

Re-­‐evaluate  the  way  parliament  operates,  and  make  the  conditions  suitable  for  working  parents.

“If  you’re  on  the  local  council,  you  could  probably  get  home  in  time  to  check  the  homework,  or  cook  dinner,  or  whatever  it  is  you  have  to  do.  Which  brings  us  back  to  the  way  we  go  about  parliament  –  which  is  pretty  much  the  same  way  we  went  about  parliament  in  1901,”  Boyce  says.

“You’re  still  expected  to  be  in  Canberra  for  great  slabs  of  time  -­‐  away  on  committee  meetings  and  committee  inquires  for  great  slabs  of  time.  And  we’ve  done  very  little  to  try  and  make  it  more  attractive  for  people  with  families.”

If  you  look  closely  at  the  number  of  successful  Liberal  women,  most  of  the  contenders  are  either  without  children  or  in  middle  age.  Julie  Bishop,  Michaelia  Cash,  Marise  Payne  and  Concetta  Fierravanti-­‐Wells  are  all  without  children.  Both  Judith  Troeth  and  Sue  Boyce  had  adult  children  when  they  were  first  elected  to  the  Senate.

Clearly  there  seems  to  be  an  issue  with  raising  young  children  and  parliamentary  success.

Helen  Conway,  CEO  of  the  WGEA,  says  that  the  various  cultural  assumptions  surrounding  women  are  to  blame  for  the  minimalist  presence  of  women  in  executive  positions  –  both  in  politics  and  in  the  corporate  world.  She  advises  that  organisations  change  their  structures  to  challenge  these  stereotypes,  so  to  cash  in  on  the  profits  of  workplace  diversity.

“Fundamentally,  given  that  it’s  unfortunately  the  case  that  women  do  most  of  the  caring,  we  really  need  to  have  a  lot  more  flexibility  around  our  workplaces  to  facilitate  women  engaging  in  those  workplaces,”  Conway  says.

“I  think  it’s  all  about  making  workplaces  more  attractive  for  women,  and  of  course,  the  pay  off  for  whoever  it  is  –  whether  it’s  the  WGEA,  whether  it’s  Parliament  House,  whether  it’s  a  corporate  company  in  Melbourne  –  is  that  you  get  much  better  talent.  You  get  much  better  productivity,  and  diversity  brings  better  performance.”

Deputy  Leader  of  the  Opposition,  Tanya  Plibersek,  has  three  children  under  the  age  of  15.  Her  youngest  son,  Louis,  is  only  five  years  old.

When  Louis  was  a  baby,  Plibersek  worked  almost  part-­‐time,  working  some  days  on,  some  days  off.  Most  days,  she  took  Louis  to  work  with  her.

When  she  was  needed  for  question  time,  she  had  her  mother  to  turn  to  for  support,  who  would  sit  patiently  in  Plibersek’s  private  office  and  nurse  the  baby.

That  was  a  busy  time  for  Tanya  Plibersek,  but  now  that  all  three  of  her  children  are  in  school,  she  says  it’s  a  bit  easier.  Although  her  children  are  first  and  foremost  her  top  priority,  she  says  she  is  too  passionate  about  politics  to  ever  consider  leaving,  and  is  willing  to  face  the  challenge  of  balancing  parliamentary  leadership  with  parenthood.

“I  have  never  considered  for  a  moment  making  a  choice  between  having  a  career  and  having  a  family.  Both  are  really  important  to  me.  It’s  sometimes  difficult  to  balance  the  two,  but  I  couldn’t  give  up  either.”  Plibersek  says.

“My  husband  and  I  accept  all  the  help  we  can  get  from  our  mothers,  other  family  and  friends.  I  also  cook  in  large  batches  and  freeze  left-­‐overs.”

As  of  2013,  Sussan  Ley  was  appointed  Assistant  Minister  for  Education,  with  her  portfolio  covering  childcare  and  early  childhood  education.  She  says  that  her  laboring  experience  as  a  politician  and  a  parent  has  made  her  well  aware  of  the  issues  facing  full-­‐time  working  parents.  With  this  in  mind,  she  hopes  to  make  childcare  more  available  to  Australian  parents,  so  that  less  have  to  face  the  same  struggle  that  she  did.

“If  you  are  the  main  income  earner  and  you  have  a  supportive  partner  who  can  assist  at  home  that’s  fantastic.  If  not,  you  need  supportive  family,  and  paid  support  in  the  form  of  childcare,”  she  says.

“I  meet  a  lot  of  women  who  spend  a  large  proportion  of  their  after-­‐tax  dollars  on  their  au  pair,  nanny,  out  of  school  care  or  vacation  care…  It  points  to  a  bit  of  a  crisis  when  it  comes  to  the  participation  of  these  women  in  the  workforce  today.”

If  the  government,  in  the  guise  of  the  WGEA,  thinks  that  private  companies  need  to  make  the  working  conditions  for  parents  easier,  why  is  it  that  they  aren’t  leading  by  example?

They  say  what’s  good  for  the  goose  is  good  for  the  gander  –  and  it  seems  that  the  Prime  Minister,  Tony  Abbott,  and  his  flock  are  showing  the  people  a  bit  of  a  double  standard  when  it  comes  to  flexible  working  conditions.

Does  the  role  of  a  parliamentarian  really  need  to  be  a  full-­‐time  job?

For  women,  perhaps  the  change  we  need  to  see  is  cultural,  with  Plibersek  suggesting  that  strong  family  support  and  a  pro-­‐childcare  attitude  is  a  must  for  mothers  in  parliament.

“Being  a  Member  of  Parliament  is  a  wonderful  responsibility,  and  a  great  opportunity  to  give  something  back  to  your  community,  but  it’s  pretty  hard  on family  life,”  she  says.

“There’s  a  large  amount  of  travelling,  a  heavy  workload  and  a  hectic  schedule.  I  think  quality  and  affordable  childcare  is  important  to  make  sure  women  are  participating  fully  in  any  career,  including  parliament.  Anyone  considering  combining  a  career  in  politics  and  a  family  has  to  have  a  very  understanding  partner  or  other  support.”