Have women taken more than a tentative step outside the front door in the quest to become breadwinners or is the old male-dominated order largely undisturbed?

This is the question Professor Sue Richardson will address in one of the keynote addresses at the Australian Social Policy Conference 2013 to be held at the University of New South Wales next week (16 -18 September).

Richardson, a Research Fellow at Flinders University, will examine the extent of the great social shift of our times of women moving into paid work and outline the implications for men’s work and the gender division of earnings in the household.

How women’s participation in the workforce has impacted on families will also be under the spotlight during the conference.

Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick will launch Combining paid work and family care, a book that analyses Australian and international experiences of working carers. Contributing authors include UNSW academics Bettina Cass, Kylie Valentine, Cathy Thomson and Trish Hill.

The first national assessment of full-time grandparent carers will be highlighted with the release of the Grandparents raising grandchildren report, co-authored by Deborah Brennan, Bettina Cass, Trish Hill, Bridget Jenkins, Christiane Purcal and Kylie Valentine. The report will be launched by The Smith Family’s Anne Hampshire.

The 2013 Australian Social Policy Conference (ASPC) will address the theme, Contemporary Challenges for Social Policy. This is the 14th ASPC hosted by UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC). The biennial conference is the country's leading event for the discussion and dissemination of social policy.

Topics include: Welfare reform, low and middle income countries, homelessness and housing, income distribution and social inequality, families, work and care, disability and mental health, children, retirement and ageing, Indigenous Australians and Chinese social policy.

Other keynote speakers are: 

  • Joakim Palme - Professor of Political Science, Department of Government, Uppsala University – The quest for sustainable social policies in ageing societies

  • Janet Gornick - Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York – Work-family reconciliation policy and gender equality: A cross-national perspective

 For the full conference program visit the website. 

What: 2013 Australian Social Policy Conference (ASPC), Contemporary Challenges for Social Policy

When: Monday, September 16 – Wednesday, September 18

Where: John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW, Kensington Campus

Media contact: Fran Strachan | fran.strachan@unsw.edu.au | 9385 8732 | 0429 416 070