Building Good Jobs for Women on the Central Coast

Abstract

Women on the Central Coast want good jobs that are financially rewarding, provide opportunities for training and progression, and allow them to meet their family commitments, and health and wellbeing needs across all stages of life. However, living on the Central Coast can limit women’s access to jobs that match their skills and often imposes a high time penalty on women who commute to Sydney or Newcastle for good jobs. On the Central Coast and its environs, poor public transport, inaccessible and high-cost early childhood education and care, combined with a lack of good flexible work and training opportunities leave many women with limited opportunities and constrained choices around what work they can pursue alongside family and personal care needs.

This report analyses how women on the Central Coast experience work now, and what they aspire to in their working futures. Barriers and enablers of work vary by stage of life and career, as well as by family type. With limited options, women do their best to balance work and care, but this often comes at significant cost to their own wellbeing as they manage the ‘mental load’ of balancing these competing tasks. This is unfair and inefficient. It limits women’s opportunities for economic security and puts a brake on economic productivity in the region.

Public investment on the Central Coast in essential public services such as public transport and early childhood education and care, alongside expanded opportunities for high quality flexible and part-time work, will change and improve employment prospects for women and support their aspirations for a successful future at work. Improving opportunities for women’s employment will benefit households, business and government. It will provide an important boost for the Central Coast economy, promote productivity and improve women’s economic security.