Public lecture: Employer paid maternity leave and women’s return to work in Australia
Event Details
- Date:
- Thursday, 05 July 2012
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Room:
- Room 443, Level 4
- UQ Location:
- Michie Building (St Lucia)
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Ms Honor Morton
- Phone:
- 67806
- Email:
- honor.morton@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Institute for Social Science Research
Event Description
- Full Description:
- What impact does paid maternity leave have on mothers’ patterns of return to work?
In this presentation, we use new Australian data to analyse the impact of employer paid maternity leave on three key aspects of women’s return to work:
whether women return to work in the first year of their babies’ lives;
whether they return to the same job they held before the birth of their baby; and how long they remain out of the workforce.
We contrast the predictions of conventional economic models on these matters with those from a simple sociological model focused on the relations of obligation that may be built through the provision of paid maternity leave. Our survey data fits the sociological model most closely, and we use qualitative data to further elaborate this model.
About the Presenter
Professor Bill Martin is Professor of Sociology in the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR). He leads the ISSR research program in Employment and Education. Professor Martin was formerly Professor of Sociology and Acting Director of the National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS), both at Flinders University, Adelaide. Professor Martin is currently directing a four year evaluation of the Paid Parental Leave scheme, funded by the Australian government.
This project involves researchers from UQ and four other Australian universities. It includes large surveys of Australian mothers and Australian employers, and in-depth interviews with mothers and employers.
Paper co-authors
Professor Janeen Baxter is an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow in Sociology and is collocated in ISSR and the School of Social Science. Her research interests are: Families and households; Gender inequalities in pa id and unpaid work and Transitions over the life course.
Dr Belinda Hewitt is Senior Research Fellow at ISSR. Her research interests are: The causes and consequences of relationship dissolution; Work, families and health; Longitudinal and life course approaches to understanding relationship and family transitions and trajectories and The gendered nature of relationships and families.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- To St Lucia Campus, UQ Ipswich, and UQ Gatton.
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