Work/Family Policies,The Changing Role of Fathers and The Presumption of Shared Responsibility for Parenting

Recent approaches to work/family policies which emphasise options for women have the potential to reinforce gender divisions of labour and to increase conflicts between paid work and family. It is argued here that more account needs to be taken of the interaction between male and female commitments to work and family, and of the possible increased involvement by men in family life. The movement away from the traditional role as the autocratic head of the household towards a more nurturant and available father role, while still small, appears to be gathering momentum. This is reflected in recent research findings, in newspaper articles and other media reports, and in proposals for changes in employment policies (e.g., the ACTU “family leave” test case). While research and everyday accounts provide some hope for future changes in gender divisions of labour, more caution needs to be taken in interpreting research findings and in making statements about the extent to which change has already occurred. A radical new direction in approaches to policy development is needed if the existing status quo of father as the major breadwinner and more distant family member, and mother as the housewife, nurturer and supplementary income earner, is to be altered. Suggestions are made for the development of policies that would both respond to the needs of fathers who are primary caregivers, and help promote a greater sharing of parenting responsibilities by fathers. The basis of these proposals is an argument for the adoption of a presumption of shared parenting to parallel the current presumption of gender equality in the paid workforce.     

Child outcome measures in the study of child care quality

This article assesses whether there are methodological problems with child outcome measures that may contribute to the small associations between child care quality and child outcomes found in the literature. Outcome measures used in 65 studies of child care quality published between 1979 and December 2005 were examined, taking the previous review by Vandell and Wolfe (2000) as the starting point. Serious methodological problems were not pervasive for child outcome measures. However, methodological concerns were most prevalent among measures of socioemotional development. Furthermore, psychometric information on outcome measures was often missing from published reports, and health outcomes and approaches to learning were infrequently studied. Future research should address alignment issues between aspects of quality and the specific child outcomes chosen for study.