There’s been a 3.2 per cent drop in the share of women engaged in part-time work in the past two years, while the pattern for men has largely remained constant, according to new research today.
Given women continue to make up the bulk of the part-time workforce — and given part-time work has traditionally carried financial and promotion penalties — this slight change could be a good thing.
It may suggest that some women are accessing the flexibility they need via full-time positions and earning more in the process.
Women aged 35 to 55 have led the charge for the increase in those working full time, finds the report by Bankwest Curtin Economics and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, based on data from 5,377 reporting organisations covering almost five million employees, over the 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 period.
So is this increase in women working full time due to financial pressures alone?
Not necessarily. The report finds the majority in this cohort are choosing to do so as a personal preference rather than a financial necessity.
The report also highlights an increase in full time working managers being able to access flexible start and end times, now at 65 per cent of full time managers.
Still, the decline in women’s share of the part time workforce could be considered modest when you consider the significant changes in how and where we can work that have been seen over the past few years.
And any positives seen in the decline in women working part time shouldn’t undermine the value of the part-time workforce, nor the need for employers to offer part-time working opportunities. Employers must also do more to reduce the career penalties and stigma that continue to follow men and working part time.
There are also continued concerns around technology enabling work to bleed into the hours and days that have traditionally been reserved for non-paid work activities, regardless of whether you’re classified as working “part time”, “full time” or working flexibly.
While part time work does, at least on paper, suggest a reprieve from work on certain days, flexible work might see employees feeling like they are “always on.”
The researchers make several recommendations in the report, including for workplaces to explore more options around job design, as well as job sharing and compressed work weeks.
With the release of today’s report, WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge calls on employers to further “challenge certain patterns of work and re-design and re-imagine work as part time and flexible in a way that delivers maximum benefit to their employees and the productivity and profitability of their organisation.”
She also notes that employers who conduct a gender pay gap analysis, set targets and implement formal policies or strategies for flexible work have higher rates of women managers working part time.
As well as what Wooldridge notes above, the report makes a number of recommendations, including for employers to work on mitigating the downside effects of part-time employment by undertaking workplace policy reviews, guarding against unconscious bias and recording and monitoring the career progression of part-time employees.
It also recommends the further normalising of flexible work arrangements via a positive and supportive workplace culture and role modelling by leadership, while also investing in the skills and capabilities of managers for managing flexible teams.
Further recommendations are related to work design, including more options for flexible hours, job sharing, and compressed work weeks.