Annotated Bibliography on Issues of Gender and Family in Australia

This annotated bibliography delves into the intricate dynamics of gender and family in the Australian context, examining key issues through a collection of scholarly articles. The annotations cover a range of topics, including the evolving roles of fathers as primary caregivers, the impact of fathers' work schedules on children's perceptions of family time, the division of household labor across different ethnic groups, and attitudes toward same-gender parent families. The included articles provide a multifaceted view of these issues, analyzing media representations, children's perspectives, survey data, and the influence of gender ideology. The bibliography highlights the unique cultural and demographic landscape of Australia, emphasizing the importance of understanding diverse family structures and the challenges and opportunities they present. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the need for continued research and policy development to address the evolving needs of Australian families.

Running head: ISSUES OF GENDER AND FAMILY IN AUSTRALIA
Issues of gender and family in Australia
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1ISSUES OF GENDER AND FAMILY IN AUSTRALIA
Annotated Bibliography
Topic: Issues of gender and family in Australia
Introduction
Australia is very unique when it comes to culture and demography. It has immigrants
coming from both English and non-English speaking backgrounds, aboriginals, refugees and
Australian born population and even among them diverse ethnic composition and hybrids are
there (Ting, Perales & Baxter, 2016). The following annotations provide insight into the
aspects that are essential in contemporary context of Australian gender and family studies.
Issues like gender roles, masculine caregiving, household labor sharing and same-sex
parenting are among the greatest concerns and the articles address these issues.
Annotation 1
Hunter, S. C., Augoustinos, M., & Riggs, D. W. (2017). Ideological dilemmas in accounts
of primary caregiving fathers in Australian news media. Discourse, Context &
Media, 20, 116-123.
The aim of the paper is to present a discourse analysis of news media reports
published in Australia concerning fathers who are primary caregivers. The role of caregiving
which was earlier ascribed to women, has shifted its balance. In heterosexual relationships
the change in dynamics means the fathers have to face new challenges and ideological
dilemmas while they try to balance work and life. Existing research has mainly focused on
the motivations of the fathers, the negative attitudes towards people who assume this role,
their coping strategies and negotiations regarding their masculine identity and caregiving.
Media plays an important role when it comes to defining the hegemonic roles of gender and
this case too, an analysis of the media publishing and understanding the media reconstruction

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if fathering and their implications become necessary. The research questions that emerge
from the study is the how media creates and produces fathering discourse and how that
impacts the primary caregiving fathers.
The sample includes 176 media articles extracted from two major newspapers within
the Factiva Database using key terms such as stay at home fathers or caregiving fathers. The
discourse analysis is conducted through content analysis as extracts are taken from the news
articles and compared within the three contexts, avocations fathers providing primary care,
comparison of the past and present and the barriers that fathers face due to their increased
involvement. The analysis finds that the media representation and constriction of discourse
for the primary caregiving fathers are inconsistent as well and contradictory. There is a clear
dilemma when it comes to fathers and primary caregivers and the main ideological dilemma
that emerges is principle of gender equality but presence of practical constraints when it
comes to practice. The hegemonic accounts of masculinity still persists and media is not
using these dilemmas or the practical barriers in order to push for social changes.
The implications of the study in understanding gender and family relationships are
huge as it provides an understanding of present social norms and ideals and the questions
regarding ‘caring masculinity’ and the hegemonic constraints that are related to it. The
limitations of the study is that it only takes newspaper articles into account and geographical
limitation is also present. The strength of the study is in its approach and implication as it
provides a substantial insight into the reality of caregiving roles while the weakness is that it
does not provide any future direction for the researchers.

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Annotation 2
Strazdins, L., Baxter, J. A., & Li, J. (2017). Long hours and longings: Australian
children's views of fathers' work and family time. Journal of Marriage and
Family, 79(4), 965-982. DOI: http://dx.doi.org.10.1111/jomf.12400
The aim of the study is to find out how the time, work schedules, intensity of work,
job flexibility of fathers are related to their children’s views about the work that their fathers
do and their family time. As fathers are becoming more involved in the family activities and
caregiving, a new dimension has been added to their responsibility. As job requirements and
demands increase in order to provide for the family financially, and mothers too, are working
post childbirth, fathers are finding it difficult to balance the work life balance. The work care
dilemmas that fathers face due demanding jobs are directly affecting the children and their
perceptions of family time. It is also important as the time that fathers invest to engage with
their children shapes the future of gender roles. The research questions that emerge are how
children view their father’s job and the stress that are linked with it and how their
understanding changes their perceptions of family time.
The sample that the study use are 5,711 father child conversation, where the child
belongs to the 10 to 13 years age group. The data collection method is interview and
analytical methodology that the paper use is logical regression on the interview content.
Previous literature suggests that children, mainly adolescents are quite understanding of their
father’s work and extended time demands. Though they want them for longer hours, they
generally accept their absence as normative or necessary to fulfil their sense of responsibility.
The children also feel happy when fathers ensure to spend family time during weekends.
The findings suggest that while many of the children’s view regarding their time with
father and their job supported previous literature, many of the children are not content with

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their family time. Though only a small percentage of the children wanted their father to not
work at all, most of the children indicated that working weekends, nights or odd hours are
more likely to make them discontent. While in many cases, the children and their fathers
shared similar views about the tested variables, in some cases like negative opinion about
family time were not always shared by them. The study uses paired data which successfully
reduced bias which is a strength of the paper. The contribution of the paper is on the temporal
tradeoffs of fathers with demanding jobs and the thought process of children about their
father’s job. The study provides future direction for the researchers as it lacks a
multidimensional approach.
Annotation 3
Ting, S., Perales, F., & Baxter, J. (2016). Gender, ethnicity and the division of household
labour within heterosexual couples in Australia. Journal of Sociology, 52(4), 693-
710.
The aim of the study is to analyze the relationship between gender, ethnicity and
household work within heterosexual couples in Australia. Historically, the household work
has been considered as women centric. Due to the growing discussion on egalitarian
households and division of household labor, more heterosexual families have changed
pattern. The research includes data from the HILDA survey and includes groups like the
Australian born (AB), migrant from an English speaking background (ESB), migrant from
and non-English speaking background (NESB) and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders
(ATSI), aged 18-65, who interviewed from 2001 to 2011nand uses a random effect panel data
regression model.
The findings of the study suggests that women of ESB and ATSI groups are likely to
spend lesser time in household work and the men are likely to spend more compared to their

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AB and NESB counterparts, thus, showing a much smaller gender gaps when it comes to
house hold. ATSI especially shows the most balanced approach to household work. The
findings support the existing literature and claim that the classical theories cannot
successfully explain the gender dimensions of all ethnic groups. The most d=significant of all
the findings are that none of the study variables like relative resources theory, doing gender,
de facto relationship variables are not applicable for ATSI, showing the distinctiveness of the
ethnic group. The research’s weakness lies in the fact that the ATSI population that it
includes are from the cities and the suburban areas while the results may vary if ATSI
population living the remote areas are included. The study also does not take into account
many other ethnic variables and hybrids into their study.
The study’s importance lies in the fact that it helps in the understanding of gender
roles and household work share according to gender. Australia is a country of diverse culture
and this understanding adds new dimension for future studies where other ethnicities can be
tested for the same variables. It also provides a strategic glimpse into the unique nature of the
ATSI people. Future work needs to test the universality of the findings as well as the
implication of the classical theories. The study is also important as the argument related to
household work, caregiving and labor division are intense when it comes to heterosexual
relationships and this study provides evidence that ethnicity might have more to do with that
than heterosexuality.

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Annotation 4
Webb, S. N., Chonody, J. M., & Kavanagh, P. S. (2018). Do we think children need a
mom and dad?: Understanding how gender ideology impact attitudes toward
same-gender parent family rights. Journal of homosexuality, 65(10), 1351-1371.
DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2017.1374071
The study aims to assess the impact of traditional gender ideology on prejudiced
behavior towards same gender family rights. While many of the western countries have
shown significant improvement in recognizing the rights of same sex couples, countries like
Australia and many other English speaking countries are still struggling with the rights of the
same gendered couples. The traditional view claims that family means both father and mother
and the development of children is affected in same sex household. A sample of 613
participants, 488 females and 125 males, were included from 18 English speaking countries
through social media and snowballing method.
The findings suggest that negative attitude towards the same gender family are likely
to affect their rights and social standing. The results also show that age, traditionalism,
religiousness, and conservative political opinion are likely to affect same gender families
negatively, and that men are likely to be more prejudiced in this matter than women. Men are
also likely to be more prejudiced about sexual minorities, their sexual orientation, and rights
than women. The reason that the study finds is the constant pressure than men are in to fit
into their masculine social role. Despite increasing discussion and research into the
egalitarian approach to family, household work and caregiving, and feminists approach to
establish a more egalitarian society and working culture in the business world, men and
women are still being subjected to certain gender roles that they continue to conform to.

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The limitation of the study is that most of the participants were from Australia, thus
representing a biased sample and a limited implication to universal population. Due to
convenience sample collection, large section was also missed and the use of single item
indicator for understanding the outcome variable has oversimplified some complex issues.
The future research that emerges from this is experimental methodologies for better
understanding of the complex matters. Future study might also inspect the intervening
prejudice that society has for same-gender families. The implication of the study for
understanding the gender and family issues are immense. While much importance is given to
gender roles in heterosexual context, the same gender families and their rights receive no
such highlight in Australia. Through these studies the importance of that becomes evident and
can be used for future policies and awareness building.
Conclusion
The above researches indicate that the unique culture and composition of Australia
creates a unique situation for her. There are different dimensions of demography and family
relationships that lie within the country. Gender roles, labor division, homosexual rights are
some of major concerns that the country faces. The researches provide insight into the aspects
of fathers as primary caregiver, children’s perception of father’s job, and family time,
household roles according to gender and same gendered parenting issues, thus providing a
diverse approach to understanding the issues that are affecting the Australian families.

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References
Hunter, S. C., Augoustinos, M., & Riggs, D. W. (2017). Ideological dilemmas in accounts of
primary caregiving fathers in Australian news media. Discourse, Context &
Media, 20, 116-123.
Strazdins, L., Baxter, J. A., & Li, J. (2017). Long hours and longings: Australian children's
views of fathers' work and family time. Journal of Marriage and Family, 79(4), 965-
982. DOI: http://dx.doi.org.10.1111/jomf.12400
Ting, S., Perales, F., & Baxter, J. (2016). Gender, ethnicity and the division of household
labour within heterosexual couples in Australia. Journal of Sociology, 52(4), 693-710.
Webb, S. N., Chonody, J. M., & Kavanagh, P. S. (2018). Do we think children need a mom
and dad?: Understanding how gender ideology impact attitudes toward same-gender
parent family rights. Journal of homosexuality, 65(10), 1351-1371. DOI:
10.1080/00918369.2017.1374071