Work-family-community in Australia: changing gendered outcomes and the impact of work intensification and working from home

Rates of employment participation in Australia continue to rise, reflecting women's increasing participation in paid work, outweighing the decline amongst men. In this context, this paper examines the changing nature of work-family-community interaction amongst women and men in Australia in 2013. This paper considers changes since 2007 which show that perceived pressures amongst full-time women have increased. It seems that workplace norms and practices are associated with high level of perceived work intensification, and these are in turn associated with worse work-life interaction. Further, technological and work organisation changes, like working from home, are not providing relief for most in the context of the current Australian work, home and community configuration: indeed it seems that working from home is associated with higher negative work-life interference, rather than providing a resources that mitigates work-life pressures. Analysis relies upon a large survey of Australian workers conducted in March 2012. The findings explain why public discussion of work-life pressures continues to be lively, and create a case for ongoing policy and action responses in workplaces and households.