The recession is scaring Australian women away from seeking a better work/life balance, with men compounding the problem by shirking housework and child-rearing responsibilities despite often having their work hours reduced.
The depressing domestic scenario laid out by the latest Australian Work and Life Index 2009, issued yesterday by the Centre for Work and Life and the University of South Australia, is that women are hardest hit by the demands of modern life and are significantly worse off than when the first survey was conducted in 2007.
Centre director and report co-author Professor Barbara Pocock said full-time working mothers were bearing the brunt of wage-earning and child-rearing, with 66 per cent feeling they were always rushed or pushed for time up from 59 per cent in 2007.
Even part-time working women were feeling the crush, with 58 per cent always rushed or pushed for time, compared with 51 per cent in 2007.
The report noted men's work/life ''interference'' had not deteriorated at all over the past three years and, in fact, may have improved a little.
Professor Pocock said that the recession was exacerbating the problem, with women too frightened to approach their employers about more flexible workloads or reduced hours.
Professor Pocock added there seemed to be no evidence to suggest men who had involuntarily had their hours reduced because of the financial slow-down were picking up the slack at home.
''We have Rolls-Royce data about who is doing the washing up in Australian households and it is women unchanging since 1992. Over that time the only thing that has changed for men is they are spending a few more minutes a day with their children.''
Professor Pocock put it down to ''an intractable sense of masculinity coming from being a worker outside the house''.
''Even in teenaged boys we identify a strong pattern for shirking household duties.''
Professor Pocock warned that ''if we want women to be a strong part of the labour market we need to expect men to be a strong part of the household''.
The report found that a quarter of all full-time workers found their work responsibilities encroached on their activities outside work with time with friends and family particularly affected among women. A fifth of all full-timers said work interfered with their community engagement.
Australia ranked ninth out of 32 countries when assessed on how well work fitted into household and community life, with Norway coming first, Germany coming sixth and Britain coming seventh.
While the report which is based on the findings of 2700 interviews with workers across the country found no state or territory differences, it did find a significant worsening of the situation for rural and regional women, which Professor Pocock suggested was worthy of further research and potential intervention.
When asked questions to come up with a work/life conflict index such as how much does work interfere with home life, community, family and friends rural and regional women reported an average work/life index of 51.3 this year with zero the best rating and 100 the worst. This is up from 44.6 in 2007.
The national average work/life index is 43.3.
Rural and regional men reported an index 14.5 points lower than their partners.
Professor Pocock said that while the results suggested Australia was doing little to address historical inequities in household work and child-rearing, there had been some positive policy changes.
The scrapping of WorkChoices for the Rudd Government's Fair Work Act provided employees with the right to request more flexible work arrangements. This year, one in five workers had made a request for flexibility, with two-thirds approved.
Rudd Government promises to address child-care shortages and aged-care demand would ease the pressure on many women, she said.
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