Study shows less support for working mums
ELEANOR HALL: A 20 year-long study has found that Australian's attitudes to working mothers hardened from the mid-1990s.
The University of Queensland study found that from that time - more people thought that there were benefits to a family if the husband was the main breadwinner while the mother stayed at home.
Bronwyn Herbert investigates what's behind the change.
BRONWYN HERBERT: It's a question of gender equality and increasingly both sexes believe stay-at-home mothers are better for children and male breadwinners are best.
JANEEN BAXTER: What we find which was surprising is that since the mid-1990s we have seen a slowdown in the trends toward egalitarian views.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Janeen Baxter a Professor of Sociology at the University of Queensland and led the study. The research was based on surveys carried out between 1986 and 2005 that tracked responses to five almost identical questions on gender issues.
Professor Baxter says a trend towards more liberal views on work and family has stalled.
Why do you think there was such a marked shift in views from the mid-1990s?
JANEEN BAXTER: There could be a couple of things. I mean, I think in the 1970s women were moving into paid work in big numbers. The liberal feminist movement was at its height. There was a lot of media interest in changing sexual relations and women's roles so attitudes have kind of slowed down.
But one other possibility is that as women have moved into paid work, they and their partners have discovered how difficult it is to combine full-time work and caring for children and so for some people, you know, maybe it is simply easier to support a more traditional arrangement.
BRONWYN HERBERT: She says men remain much more conservative:
JANEEN BAXTER: There is no evidence that men are catching up to women so women are still reporting more egalitarian views than husbands. I suppose the other thing that came out too was that we are willing to support women moving into paid work.
A lot of people, 80 per cent of people support the idea that women should be given access to paid work but we are much more conservative about who should take care of children and what happens within the household.
BRONWYN HERBERT: So 20 per cent of those surveyed actually believe that women shouldn't work?
JANEEN BAXTER: That is right. Yes, there is still quite a conservative element in the population.
BRONWYN HERBERT: Professor Baxter says the study also finds Generation Y or people born after 1980 hold more conservative views.
JANEEN BAXTER: The younger cohorts are more conservative, than older cohorts on some of these gender items. I was surprised by that. The trends that I am finding in Australia are very similar to what people have found in the UK and the US.
BRONWYN HERBERT: The study will soon be published in the Journal of Population Research.
ELEANOR HALL: Bronwyn Herbert reporting.
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