Around 95 per cent of primary parental leave, taken by the person with the most day-to-day responsibility for the child, was taken by mothers, according to new data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Fathers took 95 per cent of all secondary parental leave.
“In the private sector last year, 84,884 mums and 33,306 dads took parental leave,” Dean Adams, ABS Household Characteristics and Social Reporting Director, said. “Overall, managers were more likely to use parental leave than those in non-managerial roles. Dads who work in the Financial and Insurance Services industry and mums working in Mining were the most likely to take primary parental leave.”
The industry with the lowest overall take up of primary parental leave among mothers was Retail Trade, while for fathers this was Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing.
“The Gender Indicators release combines a wide range of data on all aspects of life including economic security, education, health, safety and justice, and democracy, governance and citizenship,” Mr Adams said.
This release also shows that men are more likely to be employed (78 per cent compared with 66 per cent of women), and more likely to be happy with the amount of work they have. Ten per cent of women wanted more work compared with 6 per cent of men. On the other hand, women are more likely to have Bachelor Degrees or above (31 per cent compared with 26 per cent of men).
“Women report more long term health conditions (80 per cent of females compared with 77 per cent of males) and more psychological distress (14 per cent of women, compared with 10 per cent of men). But they also live longer: a girl born in 2013-2015 can expect to live 85 years, while a boy can expect to live 80 years,” Mr Adams said.
“And the differences don’t stop there, There were over 10 times as many men in Australian prisons as women, and things aren’t equal on the other side of the bench either: almost two-thirds of our Commonwealth judges and justices are men.”