#17 Emma Dawson - Returning to work as a mother. Perception less reliable and home all the time.

Emma Dawson is Executive Director of public policy think tank Per Capita. She has worked as a researcher at Monash University and the University of Melbourne; in policy and public affairs for SBS and Telstra; and as a senior policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Governments.
Many mothers and caregivers express feeling that they are perceived as less reliable upon returning to the workplace after becoming a parent. While (typically) the Father is seen as less likely to leave and more reliable.
Emma and I discuss this key life stage as just one of the events that highlight the structural barriers that are still very much in place and hold women back from making the same choices as men. Emma is determined to shift the conversation away from “what is wrong with women and why don’t they lean in more?” We cover why Nordic marriages are happier and why the mental burden of Christmas shopping, school uniforms & lunchboxes is often the woman’s domain.

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