Documents Powell, Abigail 3 results

"Despite a wealth of research on working at home, few studies have examined the effects of working at home in relation to its regularity and fewer still have used time use studies to do so. Using data from the 2006 Australian Time Use Survey this article investigates the association between working at home, gender and time use, in relation to amount of time spent in paid work, unpaid work and recreational labour, as well as multi-tasking, fragmentation of time and scheduling flexibility. It examines time use patterns according to whether employees do no work at home or whether they work at home rarely, occasionally or regularly. Results show there is an association between working at home and time in paid and unpaid work and that this differs by the regularity of working at home and gender. Working at home does not create more time for recreational labour, although it may help women juggle work and family."

"Does being self-employed, as opposed to being an employee, make a difference to how parents with young children can balance work and family demands? Does self-employment facilitate more equal gender divisions of labour? This article uses the Australian Time Use Survey to identify associations between self-employment and mothers' and fathers' time in paid work, domestic labour and childcare and when during the day they perform these activities. The time self-employed mothers devote to each activity differs substantially from that of employee mothers, while fathers' time is relatively constant across employment types. Working from home is highly correlated with self-employment for mothers, implying the opportunity to be home-based is a pull factor in mothers becoming self-employed. Results suggest mothers use self-employment to combine earning and childcare whereas fathers prioritize paid work regardless of employment type. Self-employment is not associated with gender redistribution of paid and unpaid work, although it facilitates some rescheduling."

"What effect do non-standard work schedules have on how parents of young children can meet the combined and growing demands of work and family? This article uses the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006 to explore the relationship between parents' non-standard work hours, and the time they and their spouse spend in paid work, housework, childcare (subdivided into routine tasks and talk-based interaction) and in their children's company. Parents who work non-standard hours spend significantly longer in paid work and less time on housework and childcare than those who work standard hours. Spouses' schedules impact much more on mothers' than on fathers' time. When fathers work non-standard hours, mothers do more housework and routine childcare, so the gendered division of household labour intensifies. Mothers' non-standard hours allow them to schedule their own paid work and family responsibilities around each other, with little effect upon fathers' unpaid work. "