Making parenting economic inequity visible

We know that unpaid and underpaid care work leaves many women economically insecure and retiring in poverty.

Imagine how the conversation would shift if the norm and expectation became:

When you, as a dual-parent family, decide one person leaves the paid workforce to grow/birth/raise children (or you do this in a shared way), any income coming into the household is split 50/50 between the two of you, after taking out an amount for super that’s contributed to the non-paid workforce partner’s super. Because you are both contributing equally to the family, whether its more of a financial contribution or more of a caring-and-everything-else contribution. You contribute 50/50 to shared expenses and anything you’ve mutually agreed to. The rest is each person’s to spend or invest however they want.

Less men would be buying cars and boats while their partner rations her takeaway coffee. We would instantly have so many more men advocating for more payment for care work. We would also uncover some of the deep-seated beliefs that are red flags for coercive control and gendered violence, as some people try to explain why a 50/50 split “isn’t fair”.

Why is it so radical to think about it like this?

Because it makes the economic insecurity visible, instead of women invisibly shouldering it all.

Eve Rodksy made invisible labour visible with Fair Play. Now it’s time to make the economic insecurity visible, right from the start.