Championing caregiver equality
PhD candidate Amanda Selvarajah
29 May 2023
As a lawyer, Amanda Selvarajah has seen firsthand how legislation can sometimes perpetuate inequality.
“Our legal frameworks and systems were built without consulting – or in fact even considering – many people,” she says.
“I’ve always been interested in who was left out, whether or not those legacies exist today, and how we can use the law to rewrite those past wrongs.”
Now a Monash Business School PhD candidate, Ms Selvarajah has channelled that passion into her thesis, which examines Australia’s regulatory framework of work/care supports.
“Our employment framework was structured around the ‘unencumbered breadwinner’ model, where one parent works full-time supported by someone at home, but that’s just not the reality anymore,” she says.
“My research is about recognising that caregiving is a natural and valuable part of everyone’s life - including men, who are often left out of the conversation.”
Through an examination of existing legislation, industry data and the experiences of human resource professionals, her work shows supports that aim to balance work and caregiving – such as parental leave, flexible work, and childcare assistance – inadvertently perpetuating women’s disproportionate role.
“We see this in how these supports get used – 88 per cent of primary carer’s leave offered in private workplaces and universities with more than 100 employees is accessed by women,” she says.
Managers are also more likely to force women into permanent flexible arrangements such as working part-time, while allowing men informal accommodations like starting work later or leaving early.
Ultimately, Ms Selvarajah hopes her research will help to improve supports so they encourage caregiving to be shared more equally along gender lines.
“It’s such a topical issue, and quite a few of the provisions I talk about in my thesis have recently been amended, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on how these are tracking,” she says.
“I’m also eager to share the findings with the professionals who contributed to the study so they can make tangible changes in their workplaces - if I can affect change in just one workplace, then it will be a win.”
PhD supervisor and Department of Business Law and Taxation Head Carolyn Sutherland said the work was timely.
“It addresses the problem that women are participating in the workforce on unequal terms with men because of the caring responsibilities that are borne disproportionately by female workers,” Prof Sutherland said.
“Amanda's project sets a 'gender just' benchmark where workers who are also carers are treated as the norm rather than the exception.”
Now a lecturer in the Department of Business Law and Taxation, Ms Selvarajah said she is eager to “pay forward” some of the help she has received on her research journey.
“I’m looking forward to being able to one-day support PhD students of my own and give them the encouragement I have experienced,” she says.