Constrained Labour: Maternal Employment When Children Have Disabilities

Abstract

Background This study compared the workforce participation levels of mothers with and without dependent children with disabilities to provide recent data that could be considered representative of the range of families with dependent children with disabilities. Method Secondary cross‐sectional data from a representative Australian household survey were used and subject to quantitative analysis. Results Significantly lower levels of workforce participation were found among mothers of children with disabilities compared with mothers without children with disabilities. There was no evidence of a lesser desire to work. Mother's partnership status and having a child with a severe/profound activity limitation each impacted on the nature of the differences in level of workforce participation. Conclusions The results raise concerns about the particularly low levels of part‐time work among some mothers of children with disabilities, and about the impact of having a child with severe/profound activity limitations. Questions are raised about the impact of sole parent status in combination with having a child with a disability.