You know the story. Isn’t it great now that flexible working has been normalised post-lockdown? What a boon for feminism. It’s a powerful narrative. But it’s not the whole story.
The federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) published its annual Gender Equality scorecard last month, highlighting that the gender pay gap has stagnated at 22.8%, despite advances in hybrid work arrangements.
Harvard Business Review recently conducted research on stereotypes that showed women are often assumed to be less committed to their work and careers than men, especially if they’re mothers. With this as our (disappointing) baseline, we need to start thinking beyond remote working as a one-size-fits-all solution for workplace flexibility.
In economic terms, countries measure underemployment (in contrast to unemployment) as the number of people who are in a job but would like to be working more hours. What this measure neglects is a more crucial metric that may hold the key to shifting the dial on the gender pay gap – something I will call the dark underemployment. Like the dark web, it’s something most people don’t really understand, except to know that it’s bad. And a bit scary.
This dark underemployment relates to seniority – and the accompanying salary differential. Yes, most women returning from maternity leave opt to delay a return to full-time hours.
Of my circle of working mothers – all amazing go-getters – only one went straight back to full-time work after having a baby. Most tried, however, to maintain the senior role they had prior to having a baby in a part-time capacity, with the same story from their employer each time – your old role is full-time only.
Years of hard work invested in building up a career, erased in one conversation. With women representing seven out of 10 primary caregivers, it’s a wonder we don’t have a wider gender pay gap.
Less than three years ago, it would have been inconceivable for many employers to see equivalent performance outcomes from their staff working in their activewear at their kitchen tables.
Is job sharing the next frontier?
Planned well, with the right match of people and division of responsibilities, workplaces may well find themselves getting two minds for the price of one, not to mention a healthy dose of loyalty and goodwill from both employees. In today’s job market, that’s quite the point of difference for employers jostling for talent.
A study by the Melbourne Institute found that more men than women are working from home since the pandemic started. It is easier to work remotely in corporate and office-based roles, many of which are in male-dominated sectors.
Jobs in the care-based industries – childcare, healthcare, aged care and teaching – are almost impossible to do remotely, except for some management and administrative roles.
In childcare, a work-from-home arrangement would leave preschoolers to their own devices in a toddler version of professional wrestling.
In health and aged care, at least until significant technological advances are applied more broadly across the sector, nurses working from home would leave patients dangerously unmonitored.
And any parents of Victorian school-aged children may start rocking in the corner at the mention of remote learning.
Common to all these sectors? They have female-dominated workforces. Women comprise around two-thirds of the education workforce and 80% of the healthcare and social assistance sectors.
Add to this the parenting double standard for those who do have the luxury of remote working.
Consider this: a man is on a Zoom call and in wanders his little kid, climbs up on to his knee, with messy hair and mismatched clothes. The reaction is probably a collective “awww” from his colleagues on the call. They might think to themselves, what a guy! He must be so empathetic – look at him parenting while juggling a high-powered career! Now, consider the same situation, but instead it’s a woman. The uncomfortable truth is that at least one person on that call will be thinking something like this: why hasn’t she organised childcare for her kids during work time? What if she has another baby soon?
Don’t get me wrong: being able to work from anywhere has significantly and positively changed the lives of many women – I’m one of them.
Yet the Zoom revolution has largely benefited men. It’s time to expand our thinking beyond this dominant but ill-informed narrative and push forward on solutions such as job sharing as the next revolution in workplace flexibility.