Megan Blaxland

Parenthood, policy and work-family time in Australia 1992—2006

This article explores how having children impacted upon (a) paid work, domestic work and childcare (total workload) and (b) the gender division of labour in Australia over a 15-year period during which government changed from the progressive Labor Party to the socially conservative National/Liberal Party Coalition. It describes changes and continuity in government policies and rhetoric about work, family and gender issues and trends in workforce participation. Data from three successive nationally representative Time Use Surveys (1992, 1997 and 2006), N=3846, are analysed. The difference between parents’ and non-parents’ total workload grew substantially under both governments, especially for women. In households with children there was a nascent trend to gender convergence in paid and unpaid work under Labor, which reversed under the Coalition.

So that's How I Found out I Was a Young Carer and that I Actually Had Been a Carer Most of My Life. Identifying and Supporting Hidden Young Carers.

A common theme in the literature on care-giving is the issue of ‘hidden’ carers, that is, people who undertake caring roles and responsibilities, yet do not identify themselves as carers. One reason people do not recognise themselves as carers relates to the nature of the caring relationship. When providing care for a family member, intra-familial bonds of love and reciprocity do not encourage parties to view the relationship as anything other than a ‘normal’ familial relationship. The lack of self-identification amongst young carers is complicated further by societal norms surrounding care-giving. Whereas adults are expected to provide care to other adults and children, young people are not expected to be care-givers but rather care recipients. As a result, many young carers remain ‘hidden’ and beyond the reach of services and supports designed to help them in their caring role. This paper draws on qualitative research with young carers and service providers to explore the issue of self-identification amongst young carers. The paper concludes with recommendations for identifying and supporting hidden young carers.

Introduction: Moving towards Human Rights Based Social Policies in China

China is at a turning point in the reform of its social welfare system due to new opportunities and pressures. First, China is in transition to a middle developed country. Fast economic growth has created more wealth for the government and society that could be invested in the social welfare of its citizens. Second, social problems and conflicts have accumulated, partly as a result of past social policies, which were residual only, as was common in Asia (Aspalter, 2006). These residual policies had the primary purpose of securing the economic and political interests of the nation, which were regarded as superior to the interests of individual citizens. The social costs of economic growth at the expense of human rights are widespread and often hidden. In this unsustainable situation, the Chinese public has called for fundamental reforms to Chinas social policies – not only policies aimed at resolving individual problems, but also reform of the basic principles of the social welfare system as a whole.

Factors associated with establishment-based female sex workers accessing health care services in Shanghai

Female sex workers are a priority population for HIV prevention and health promotion in China. This paper examines the patterns of and factors associated with the utilisation of HIV-related and general health services by establishment-based sex workers in Hongkou District, Shanghai. Participants were recruited through a three-stage sampling strategy and invited to self-complete a brief survey in 2012. The median age of the 400 participants included in the analyses was 33 years (range = 18–52 years old), with over three-quarters being married at the time of the survey. Participants were mostly internal migrants, more than half had lived in Shanghai for six months or longer and nearly two-thirds were working in an establishment with a total of less than five female sex workers. Routine physical examination and HIV testing were the most commonly accessed health services in the previous 12 months. Altogether, 347 women (86.8%) had actively sought, including 157 women had obtained, free health services mainly from local Community Health Service Centres (CHSCs) in the previous 12 months. The active seeking of free, largely CHSC-provided health services was associated with a longer duration of residence in Shanghai (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.55, 95% CI = 1.32–4.93; p < 0.01) and having tested for HIV in the previous 12 months (AOR = 3.68, 95% CI = 1.84–7.38; p < 0.001). Conversely, a higher annual income (AOR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.21–0.80; p < 0.01), working in a larger establishment (AOR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.20–0.79; p < 0.01) and knowing that HIV can be transmitted through blood transfusion with unscreened blood (AOR = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.05–0.91; p < 0.05) were associated with not actively seeking such services. Free, community-based health services are highly demanded by establishment-based female sex workers in Shanghai. Scaling-up of free and integrated health services provided by community-based health service providers in metropolitan areas in China and beyond holds promise for promoting health and well-being of female sex workers.

Introduction: People Oriented: A New Stage of Social Welfare Development in China

Alongside 35 years of economic development, China’s social welfare system has also undergone rapid change. The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) is facing pressure to provide more services to the people it has served in the past, such as orphans, older people without families, and people with disabilities. The MCA is also facing pressure to provide new services to social groups that were not previously covered, such as orphans in communities, “left-behind children” whose parents have migrated to the cities for work. New service projects have been created overnight, as happened with free school lunches and school buses. Local governments, especially governments in relatively developed areas, are competing in welfare provision to see who can provide more and better services. Walking in the streets of Beijing, it is not unusual to see advertisements in supermarkets or in residential areas, along the lines of, “The government will provide a free pair of glasses to Beijing residents aged above a certain number of years” or “The government is providing a free health check (or a free flu injection) for all Beijing eligible residents in attendance at a particular time and place.” This new trend is vastly different from even a few years ago, when the role of government in welfare provision was strictly residual and welfare was generally regarded as the private responsibility of families for whom policy support was rare. At that time, the state