Lyn Craig

• UNSW Sydney

There are recognised cross-national differences in the average amount and gender division of paid work and unpaid domestic work and care, but country differences between men and women in the timing and intensity of this daily workload remain under-investigated. Using couple-level time-use data from Australia, the UK, Finland, Korea and Spain (n = 1...

Using nationally representative Time Use Surveys from Australia, Korea, and Finland (n = 19,127 diaries) we examine how parenthood and the age of the youngest child are associated with the recuperative activities of leisure and sleep, the productive activities of market and nonmarket work, and with subjective time stress. Time stress differences by...

Active participation of the elderly is a recognized response to address the societal and individual challenges of rising life expectancy such as releasing the pressure of age-related public spending, reducing social isolation and improving well-being. How much time older people devote to active participation and whether their time allocation is ass...

Motherhood brings significant change in the way women spend and experience their time. Having children is an intensely personal experience. Yet, much of the practical impact upon mothers’ time is shaped by the social organisation of work and care, which means the daily demands of parenting and child-raising vary over time and place. This chapter us...

We use data from the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics time use survey to investigate shares of domestic work along two dimensions; routine and non-routine activities, and housework done for the whole household versus housework done for oneself only. We argue that the latter is an underutilised marker of responsibility for household manag...

Gender equality in time spent in market work and in housework and family care is widely seen as desirable, potentially enhancing women’s financial security and allowing men to participate more fully in family life, but does gendered time equality engender higher subjective time stress than gender specialization? This chapter uses time use data from...

This paper uses Australian data from a national representative sample of Australian couples having their first child. Using data from before and after the birth of the child on a range of variables, including economic resources, gender attitudes, workplace flexibility, and availability of non-parental childcare, we first model the factors are assoc...

It is widely argued that parenting has intensified in recent decades and that family life has become increasingly child-centred. Intensive parenting represents a cultural shift in parenting behaviour that requires enactment at the individual level. Moreover, adherence to intensive parenting standards is often presented as a conscious/willing adopti...

In 1999, two leading Australian academics challenged Australian universities to lead moves to better manage employees' maternity and breastfeeding needs, and 'bring babies and breasts into workplaces'. This paper addresses the question of how universities cope with the need for women to breastfeed, by exploring barriers facing women who combine bre...

Most research on gender divisions of housework focuses on couple and family households. This article extends this literature to examine gender differences in domestic labour across living arrangements, with particular focus on young adults. Using time-diary data from the nationally representative Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Surve...

Hiring household help could reduce housework time and alleviate subjective time pressure. Associations are assumed to be particularly apparent for women because they spend more time on housework than men. But empirical evidence on whether hiring help actually saves time or relieves time pressure is scant and inconclusive, chiefly because of data an...

The authors investigated gender differences in couple parents' subjective time pressure, using detailed Australian time use data (n=756 couples with minor children). They examined how family demand, employment hours, and nonstandard work schedules of both partners relate to each spouse's non-employment time quality (“pure” leisure, “contaminated” l...

In moving toward adulthood, young people make formative choices about their social and economic engagement while developmentally seeking autonomy from parents. Who else then contributes to guiding young people during this formative life-stage? This article explores one contributing relationship: relationships with trusted adults. Past research has...

Trusted adults outside the home often play an important role in young people's lives, providing motivational, emotional and practical support as young people navigate the social and economic transitions of young adulthood. Their support is developmentally appropriate as they often treat young people as adults, as they are guiding them towards that...

The transition from having no children to starting a family brings substantial changes in time use (Craig and Bittman 2008; Kotila, Schoppe-Sullivan, and Kamp Dush 2013). The increase in household workload is large and, although it varies somewhat across different social and policy contexts, it is present cross-nationally (Dribe and Stanfors 2009;...

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...

Grandparents’ regular care for children while parents work has been mostly studied from the parental perspective. This paper focuses on the grandparents. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006 (N = 7672) we investigate regular-caring grandparents’ demographic characteristics, which childcare activities they undertake, and ho...

How do grandparents spend their child-care time? We examine how the composition of grandparent child care differs from parent child care, and whether child-care composition is more gender-similar for grandparents than for parents. Using the most recent (2006) Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey, we investigate along three dimensions: (a...

In recent years, policy makers and researchers have focused on young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). In 2011, approximately 1 in 10 young Australians aged 15-24 fell into this category (Muir, 2012). Whilst this figure was considerably lower than the 2011 OECD average of 16.4 per cent (OECD, 2012), the economic engage...

Expectations of fathers have moved from being financial providers to also taking an active, hands-on role in the care of children. What does this mean for contemporary Australian fathers’ time commitments to work and family? This paper draws together studies using time use data from Australia, USA, France, Italy and Denmark to show change and conti...

We use data from matched dual earner couples from the Australian Time Use Survey 2006 (n = 926 couples) to investigate predictors of different forms of domestic outsourcing, and whether using each type of paid help is associated with reduced time in male or female-typed tasks, narrower gender gaps in housework time and/or lower subjective time pres...

The authors explored links between weekend work and leisure time shared with partners, children, other resident/nonresident family, and friends, using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006. Drawing a sample of employed persons (n = 3,903), they tested associations between weekend work and shared leisure time on the day of work an...

This study uses the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2013 ‘Family and Changing Gender Roles’ module (N = 1773) to examine cross-country differences in the relationship between women’s part-time work and work–life conflict and job satisfaction. We hypothesize that part-time work will lead to less favorable outcomes in countries with empl...

We explore links between weekend work and leisure time shared with partners, children, other resident and non-resident family, and friends, using the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006 (n>4,000 households). Drawing a sample of employed persons (n=3903) we test associations between weekend work and shared leisure time o...

Grandparents have historically underpinned the functioning of families raising children, particularly through emotional support and guidance. Recently, maternal workforce participation has propelled modern grandparents into a more active role, with many regularly caring for children while parents work. This trend has important implications for fema...

This study uses the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2013 ‘Family and Changing Gender Roles’ module (N = 1773) to examine cross-country differences in the relationship between women’s part-time work and work–life conflict and job satisfaction. We hypothesize that part-time work will lead to less favorable outcomes in countries with empl...

Young adults are now more likely to co-reside with their parents than previous generations, but domestic work patterns among this family type are largely unexplored. This study addresses this issue using Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Surveys (1992, 1997, 2006) and Poisson–Gamma regression analyses. It examines patterns in and correlates...

Contemporary expectations of good parenting hold that focused, intensive parental attention is essential to children's development. Parental input is viewed as a key determinant in children's social, psychological and educational outcomes, with the early years particularly crucial. However, increased rates of maternal employment mean that more pare...

To what extent can weekend workers reschedule nonwork activities or time with significant others to weekdays? From the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 2006, a sample of employed persons aged 15-64 (n=3860) is drawn to examine associations between weekend work and time spent in nonwork activities, time spent alone, and time spent in...

Contrasting family policies, employment regulation, childcare provision, and gender attitudes mean that the gender division of paid work and childcare varies cross-nationally. Does it follow that the quality and quantity of mothers and fathers’ leisure time also vary across countries? We conduct a gender comparison of parents’ leisure time using na...

What impact does out-sourcing childcare have on the time parents spend on paid work, domestic work and childcare, and how they share these tasks between themselves? Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) 2006 we investigate the effects of formal and informal non-parental childcare on the time use of couples...

This study investigates discrimination against breastfeeding mothers by childcare services in Australia. We conducted a cross sectional survey of 178 Australian childcare services from a population based sample during 2011-12. Analysis examined the awareness of relevant legislation and reported extent of discrimination, and explored relationships b...

This paper aims to identify best-practice strategies for breastfeeding support in the Australian workplace. It uses data from Australian employers and their female employees who had initiated breastfeeding and returned to work. Our aims were to (a) identify key barriers to and enablers of combining breastfeeding with employment, including employmen...

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 i...

Finding time to both earn money and raise children is demanding. Within the constraints and opportunities of their employment and social policies affecting work and family, parents seeking to manage their time may use a number of strategies. For example, they can outsource childcare or adopt atypical work patterns: non-standard work schedules, self...

We use data from nationally representative time-use surveys to compare and contrast lone and partnered mothers’ childcare time in four countries with different social norms and policy orientations towards mother-care and work–family reconciliation: Australia, the United States, France, and Denmark (N = 8,031). We decompose time with children into p...

In most families today, childcare remains divided unequally between fathers and mothers. Scholars argue that persistence of the gendered division of childcare is due to multiple causes, including values about gender and family, disparities in paid work, class, and social context. It is likely that all of these factors interact, but to date research...

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, housewo...

beyondblue commissioned the Social Policy Research Centre to conduct focus group research with consumers and carers. Consumers are defined as people with personal experience of depression, anxiety and related substance use disorders, and carers are defined as family members and friends who care for consumers. The study aimed to: (i) comprehensively...

We analyze data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey waves 1–6, to investigate whether the housework and childcare contributions of coupled Australian men with one child affect the likelihood that their wives will have a second child. We find no evidence that the way housework or childcare is shared has an effe...

The presentation reports on data collected from Australian employers and their employees on best practice breastfeeding support in the workplace.

Sharing leisure experiences is thought to promote family bonding and communication, and foster children’s intellectual, social and psychological development. Such time is ‘purposive’, and requires planning, organisation and maintenance, usually from the mother. Do parents and children spend more time in shared leisure together in countries where mo...

Research has associated parenthood with greater daily time commitments for fathers and mothers than for childless men and women, and with deeper gendered division of labor in households. How do these outcomes vary across countries with different average employment hours, family and social policies, and cultural attitudes to family care provision? U...

Is gender inequality in unpaid work within households implicated in falling fertility rates? This paper investigates whether the likelihood couples with one child will have more children is affected by: (i) the amount of household labor they each perform or (ii) the way they divide household labor between themselves. Drawing a sample of partnered c...

This article explores how having children impacted upon (a) paid work, domestic work and childcare (total workload) and (b) the gender division of labour in Australia over a I 5-year period during which government changed from the progressive Labor Party to the socially conservative National/Liberal Party Coalition. It describes changes and continu...

This article investigates how work–family balance and the gender division of labour differ according to whether children are in early childhood, middle childhood or the early teen years. It uses measures of both behaviour and attitudes, drawing on two nationally representative Australian data sets, the Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey and the H...

Measures of childcare drawn from time-diary data are commonly based on the specific childcare activities a parent engages in throughout the day. This emphasis on activities has been criticised as it ignores the large quantity of time parents spend supervising their children. In order to provide more accurate estimates of childcare that incorporate...

This paper explores associations between social and policy context and how parents of young children allocate time to work and family, using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) 1997 and 2006. Over the period, Australia's economy was growing and unemployment was low. Political rhetoric supported 'traditional' fa...

Raising children takes both time and money. Scholars have sought convincing ways to capture the costs of children, but even when these estimates include indirect costs, such as mothers' foregone earnings, they fall short of the true time costs involved. This paper uses data from the 1997 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey to stud...

This paper explores aspects of how parents of young teenagers experience balancing work and family demands, compared to parents of younger children. It uses data from Waves 1 and 3 of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey and from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) 1997. It assesses whethe...

In this timely book Lyn Craig provides the first comprehensive account of how parents divide their time between caring for children, housework, paid work and leisure. Using large-scale quantitative time-use data, the book provides a detailed analysis of the impact of children upon adult time. This research reveals a unique picture of how parenthood...

This paper i) explores the relationship between husbands and wives' (relative and absolute) housework allocation and their perceptions of domestic fairness, and ii) tests whether actual or perceived domestic inequity increases the odds of divorce. It analyses data of 2500 married couples tracked over Waves 1-4 of the Household Income and Labour Dyn...

This paper draws on data from the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) (over 4,000 randomly selected households) to tease out the dimensions of the `second shift'. Predictions that as women entered the paid workforce men would contribute more to household labour have largely failed to eventuate. This underpins the...

Time use studies find that employed mothers reduce their parental childcare time by much less than an hour for every hour they spend in market work. This paper uses data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 1997 (4,059 randomly selected households) to investigate how employed mothers manage to avoid a one-for-one trade-off betwe...

How does parental education affect time in the paid workforce and time with children? Potentially, the effects are contradictory. An economic perspective suggests higher education means a pull to the market. Human capital theory predicts that, because higher education improves earning capacity, educated women face higher opportunity costs if they f...

Birth rates are falling throughout the western world. There is no definitive answer as to why this is so. This paper investigates whether time use analysis could offer a useful perspective. It explores the way parenthood affects time allocation in four countries with different work-family policies, using data from the Multinational Time Use Survey...

Women are increasingly allocating time to the paid workforce, but there has not been a corresponding change by men allocating equivalent time to domestic and caring labour. In the absence of sufficient institutional and domestic support, women continue to supply the bulk of time required to care for children. This amounts to only half a sex revolut...

Households provide their members with both financial support and caring services. In sole parent households, the functions of earning money and caring for children fall to one individual. Current government policy favours work force participation as the solution to the higher poverty rates in lone parent families, but this may have a mirror effect...

This article uses diary data from the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey (N > 4,000) to compare by gender total child care time calculated in the measurements of (1) main activity, (2) main or secondary activity, and (3) total time spent in the company of children. It also offers an innovative gender comparison of relative...

Parents who undertake paid work are obliged to spend time away from their children, and to use nonparental childcare. This has given rise to concern that children are missing out on parental attention. However, time-use studies have consistently shown that parents who are in paid employment do not reduce their parental childcare time on an hour-for...

Raising children takes both time and money. For almost 150 years, scholars have attempted to find convincing ways to capture the costs of raising children. However, even when these estimates include indirect costs, such as mothers' foregone earnings, little research has been done on estimating the true time costs of raising children. This paper sho...

Birth rates are falling, and gender inequity at population level is thought to be one explanation. This paper investigates whether the division of domestic labour at family level is also implicated. It conducts logistic regression analysis of data from the longitudinal survey Household and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and finds the m...

This paper explores fertility in comparative perspective, using time use data to highlight the impact of children in the domestic sphere. It investigates whether variation in gendered time allocation to market and non-market work relates to national fertility outcomes. Time use data offer a unique window into how people allocate their labour resour...