Politicians from all camps have been openly trying to win over women this election but it seems many female voters are unconvinced. An independent survey of almost 1000 working women, conducted by marketing company The Heat Group, shows that 1 in 5 are “disenfranchised by the upcoming election”. Nearly 20% stated that they plan on recording a donkey vote and would even go as far as voting for a member of One Direction. The Heat Group’s managing director Gillian Franklin says both Abbott and Rudd should take note of this concerning sentiment.
“The main takeaway is that women are quite unhappy with the opportunities that are available to them,” Franklin told Women’s Agenda. “Less than 5% of the working women we spoke to are satisfied with current conditions.”
Is this surprising, given how much focus the major political parties have given paid parental leave and childcare this campaign? “It’s the content of the discussions that isn’t aligned with the experience women have,” Franklin says. “There’s been lots of talk about the cost of paid parental leave and much less discussion of the economic benefits and value it delivers.”
If Australia were a company Franklin says these conversations would be very different.
“If you looked at education as an investment then you would look at the return on investment in women and see that it is shocking,” she says. “Women here are highly educated but we don’t get the return. That indicates something is fundamentally wrong that needs to be addressed.”
That is why Franklin says there is a strong economic imperative to provide appropriate infrastructure like childcare and paid parental leave that supports women working.
“We need to start using language that encapsulates the economic value of adequate child-care rather than the cost, because the truth is childcare subsidies allow working mums to continue to work or to work more or to return to work sooner, which in turn drives the economy,” she says. “We forget about the economic value of having these women working. Women who work spend more money than men who work and they spend more money than women who don’t work. Whether it is through the business she generates at work, her personal income tax contributions or the way she spends her salary, working women boost the economy.”
On the topic of paid parental leave Franklin says there is a significant misunderstanding that is being overlooked. “Having children costs money,” she says. “It is a myth that when women have children they have miraculously saved up a huge amount of money beforehand, and that their usual expenses will decrease substantially . In actual fact your ordinary expenses continue and then increase when you have a child, particularly in the first year.”
It is one of many reasons working women feel the current system doesn’t adequately support their ability to work. “What we see is that for women earning between $70K-$100K a year, the cost of childcare means their net pay is such that they do stop and wonder if it’s worth the frustration and stress,” Franklin says. “Many reach that point and opt out for a few years to raise their children but what we see is they never catch back up which then contributes to the pay gap.”
Franklin encourages individual women to consider it as a long-term investment but says employers and the government need to provide better support. “Culturally we need employers providing sincere flexibility and we need public infrastructure to make it less financially painful so it can be worth it to work.”
In a nutshell what working women want:
The Heat Group’s survey also found that:
- 36% want improve paid maternity leave policies to make it easier for mums to keep working
- 25% asked for more childcare facilities
- 33% asked for childcare to be tax-deductible
- 23% asked for the current rebates and subsidies to be increased
- 47% said they would like to see improvements in gender discrimination
- 49% said the primary influence on their vote is research they have conducted