Luca Pomare could have been a doctor but chose to be a dentist because it would be more family-friendly. Since he began working, his goal has been to find ways to work from home, so he could look after the children he hoped to have one day.
Now that his son Leonardo has arrived, Pomare spends a day a week managing practices remotely. That helps his wife Amanda Elaro prosper in her career, too; she works full time, travels, and was promoted soon after she returned from maternity leave.
Luca Pomare and Amanda Elaro with their son Leonardo.Credit:Brook Mitchell
New research from Sydney University has found that a growing proportion of men under 40 prioritise flexible, family-friendly jobs, and their expectations for a family-friendly career are closer than ever to those of young women.
“Young men and young women are increasingly oriented in similar ways to work,” co-author Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill said.
The university’s Gender Equality in Working Life Research Initiative first studied the under-40 workforce in 2017 and went to young women and men again late last year to learn about their aspirations at work.
Key findings from the latest research were released this week before International Women’s Day on Wednesday, March 8 as a Senate committee finalises a report on amendments to paid parental leave, which will examine how to better include fathers.
Some 88 per cent of women told the researchers they wanted balance in work and care, but only 35 per cent said they already had it. The aspiration was almost as strong among men; 84 per cent wanted it, and only 37 per cent said they had it.
Flexibility was also almost as high on men’s wish lists as women’s.
While women thought more about what they’d need to have children – affordable housing, access to secure, well-paid work, and access to childcare – men actively considered those issues, too. Climate change was also an influence, particularly on the 18- to 30-year-old group.
“We did see in the 2017 data, certainly, that young men with children, young fathers were thinking about what it would take for them to have a successful future of work,” Hill said. “This year’s data shows those convergences have been driven even further.
“[Men and women’s] experience in the workforce remains quite different. But in terms of their aspirations, they are converging, and that’s a real challenge for the government. The question is, how are you going to meet those expectations?
“How are you going to move from, yes, women who have children need flexibility and women are more likely to ask [for flexibility] and be given it, compared to men who are much less likely to ask, and when asked, they were denied it?”
Georgie Dent, the executive director of The Parenthood, an advocacy group focused on family-friendly policies, said flexible work conversations once focused on how mothers would juggle jobs and caring. That is changing to include men, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID experience has forced people to really evaluate what they’re doing with their lives and what they want to be doing with their lives,” she said. “Men and women are thinking, ‘if I have a family I want it to be a shared undertaking’.”
However, policy was not enough; cultural change was needed too, Dent said. “We need to ensure that there’s a cultural acceptance that men taking time out from paid work to raise their child is part of the ordinary course of life.”
Women under 40 are the most educated cohort in the world, and Elaro is no exception; she has an honours degree and a PhD in respiratory medicine. “We both put in the long yards, we both studied and we both want to progress our careers,” she said.
“I don’t think having a child set me back. I am happy in my career, and I feel I can do that because of the goals that Luca has and the balance we’ll be able to maintain.”
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