The gender divide inherent in Australia's parental leave system continues to leave women in a vulnerable position in the workplace, says a Sydney academic.
Marian Baird, convenor of the Women and Work Research Group, was speaking at a University of Sydney colloquium to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.
Associate Professor Baird, from the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies, said: "In all my research on maternity leave, I've found that most often, women accrue different types of leave - annual, long service and maternity - and package it all together to allow themselves more time at home with their child.
"Only a very small number of Australian men take paid paternity leave - around seven per cent - and even then, most employers only offer about seven days. Just 14 per cent of fathers take unpaid leave, compared with almost 60 per cent of mothers."
She pointed out that although new legislation allows parents an extra 12 months of unpaid leave - as well as the existing 12 months that employers must offer - employers are free to refuse this on their own terms. And though the provision of an extra year can be shared between parents and is therefore supposed to alleviate some of the burden of childcare placed on mothers, more often than not women ultimately take the extra year of leave.
All this, said Professor Baird, leaves women in an exceptionally vulnerable state in the workplace.
"By effectively keeping women out of paid employment for up to two years, we're saying a lot about the role of women in our society.
"If we don't start valuing this period in women's lives, we'll end up paying a huge social cost."
Professor Baird was adamant that Australian women must not waver in the fight for compulsory paid maternity leave. She did, however, warn that the issue had become increasingly complex since the Howard Government's introduction of the baby bonus scheme.
"This is already a fairly contentious issue, and it's only going to become a bigger problem," she said.