As Australia expands the Paid Parental Leave scheme to 26 weeks by July 2026, further policy development will be important for improving gender equality, according to a new report by Dr Sarah Duffy and Danielle Howe from Western Sydney University. The report draws on interviews with Australian parents and international policy comparisons to identify how current leave settings shape workforce participation, distribution of the domestic load and caregiving patterns. The report finds that Australia’s paid parental leave system continues to reinforce patterns in which mothers take on a greater share of caregiving and domestic work, with only 0.6 per cent of recipients accessing primary government-funded paid parental leave being fathers. The report argues that parental leave policy is not simply a workplace entitlement but a structural driver of gender equality, workforce participation and family wellbeing.
