Thu, 18/02/2010

The project report was a produced by the National Foundation for Australian Women, Security 4 Women, Australian Women’s Coalition, National Rural Women’s Coalition and WomenSpeak (which is coordinated by YWCA Australia). The report is based on consultations carried out with women across Australia.

The report finds it is clear that there are many barriers facing women who want to work.

The report shows that

  • there is a complete failure to adequately address the needs for care of school age children before and after school and during school vacations. Care for children under school age is expensive, and some waiting lists are excessively long.
  • the needs of women with a disability, and of women who are refugees or migrants are not adequately met by support services, training programs, and English language programs.
  • the needs of indigenous women seeking to enter the workforce are not adequately addressed by  training programs.
  • there is inadequate provision of respite and on-going care services for people with disabilities, which would enable their carers to enter training and in due course the workforce.
  • the problems of inappropriate or inadequate public transport are a barrier to women seeking to work in cities. There is a lack of public transport in regional and rural Australia.

» Download a copy of the report