Leah Ruppanner, University of Melbourne; Francisco Perales, The University of Queensland, and Janeen Baxter, The University of Queensland Children are a wonderful gift, bringing joy, laughter, and lov…
Finally! A chart confirms why mums should never work outside the home
Consider this chart an early Christmas gift. Something to put a little fizz in your bubbles, some tinsel to your tree, a ribbon around your gift. In response to the question of whether women should wo…
Why it’s time to stop using ‘mum’ as shorthand for ‘parent’
Earlier this year over coffee a friend, Lisa Lintern, confessed her angst at a war she is waging at her children’s school. It’s a war she wants to win but it’s not one she wants to f…
‘I wasn’t just sad, I was sick’: Brigid Glanville on her battle with postnatal depression
Earlier this year I was floored by a Sydney woman’s raw, unflinching, description of her experience with postnatal depression. ‘I can barely recognise myself in the woman weeping at the ki…
An extraordinary year for women as record numbers contest US midterm elections
It was said that 2018 would be the ‘year of women’, and next week’s midterm elections in the United States could be the serious test of just what that means. A record number of women…
‘I am doing everything & you need to do more’: A universal household dispute?
Last week I was typing away in a cafe not far from my home when a small group of mothers and their babies arrived and sat at the next table. They nursed their infants, sipped coffee and shared notes a…
An inconvenient truth & the solution to ‘having it all’ we cannot ignore
Devouring The Weekend Australian magazine is a rite I savour and Saturday was no exception. The cover story “An Inconvenient Truth: Mothers, Families and the Secrets We Keep…Is Work Life Balance a Lie…
The twitter thread making parents laugh & cry
Parents, whether it’s a great big belly laugh that you need or a big old cry I have the thread for you. On Tuesday author Maxine Benenba Clark posted an idea on Twitter for a reality TV show whe…
It’s time to radically reimagine the role of fathers in workplaces & homes
With little fanfare, a rather special event took place in Canberra last week on the subject of fatherhood. Liana Leach at The ANU, and Amanda Cooklin at La Trobe University, quietly co-hosted a one-da…
The decision to be child free is a choice: It’s time to stop the judgement
Women choosing not to have children aren’t a rare breed, with one in four deliberately making the choice to be child free despite living in a world that raises them to be mothers. Yet, there’s so much…
