Double load
Have you ever heard of ILO 156? If not, it might be worth getting some more information — used properly, it could save millions of women from hours of housework. No, it's not a washing machine that picks clothes up off the bathroom floor by itself. It's a declaration of principle by the International Labour Organisation signed by the Australian government in 1990, which focuses on making things less difficult for "workers with family responsibilities".
In signing the convention, the Australian government committed itself to improving conditions of employment and social security and to developing child-care and other community centres. At the same time, it decided to launch a community education campaign to get household members to do their fair share of the housework rather than leave it to one particular person.
Funding cuts and lay-offs appear to be slowing up the first prong. The second — examining the dimensions of the problem and telling people about it — appears to be going well. The Office of the Status of Women recently produced a community education kit called "Working Families: Sharing the Load". It sets out in black and white what many intuitively feel:
- Seventy per cent of all unpaid work is done by women.
- Married men do about 18 hours a week unpaid work regardless of whether their wives are in paid work.
- When a woman gets married, she increases her unpaid work by almost 60%, and when a baby arrives, her unpaid hours go up by 91% to 56 hours a week.
- Only 23% of households consist of male breadwinner with dependent wife and children.
- Unpaid work takes up about as much time nationally as paid work — 3.79 billion hours a year unpaid work compared to 3.56 billion hours paid work.
- Eighty-six per cent of women who have to ask for help with housework feel it changes their feelings towards their partners; 9% say the effect has been enough to make them seriously consider separating.
- One in three Australian marriages ends in divorce.
The kit, a booklet called Juggling Time, and a "sensitive" video designed to promote discussion around these issues are all available from the OSW phone (06) 271 5722, fax (06) 271 5751.
By Tracy Sorensen