What women want: 2009-10 survey report

• Institute for Social Science Research

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01 March 2010Drawing on reponses from 9504 women, this report looks at the experiences of women in the workplace, including hours worked, flexible arrangements and superannuation.

The results of this survey, carried out for the Community and Public Sector Union, provide evidence that many women caring for children are also caring for others such as parents, adult children and partners. Despite these caring responsibilities, nearly a quarter (23.5%) of women reported that taking time away from work for personal matters was frowned upon. The majority (83.6 %) of full time women reported working additional hours and one in ten said they received no additional compensation for this. Compared with the 2008 survey results, the survey shows that more women are being contacted more frequently out of hours.

Being able to negotiate part time work was very important or important to 78.8 per cent of women with dependents. The survey results show that while flexible work provisions are important to women, they were rarely able to access them regularly. Nearly 23.5% of women reported that taking time away from work for personal matters was frowned upon.
 
Superannuation continues to be a big issue for women with many feeling too  time-pressed to learn more and gain control of their retirement futures. A quarter of respondents did not know how much they currently have in their superannuation accounts. Having more than one superannuation account was fairly common with two in five women indicating that they had more than one account. This rate was slightly higher among those aged 34 and below. Nearly two thirds of women had never seen a financial planner about superannuation or their retirement.

Image: yewenyi / flickr