On International Women’s Day, I’m walking off the job for the first time in my life. Why? Because frankly, I am disappointed with the lack of progress in society that I have seen – actually, not seen – during my life.
I had an early inkling that girls and boys were treated differently but it was made very clear one day in primary school. It was fete day at my Catholic school to raise some money. We were allowed to come in normal clothes, not the usual serge tunic, and one brave girl dared to come to school in trousers. She was made a humiliating example of and shamed, but she held her head high as she was sent home and didn’t cry. I had nothing but admiration for her. Me? I did what I was told, compliant, shy and often very confused by the world around me. So much seemed just plain stupid.
Now I am much older, not so shy and I see the world more clearly. I know with all my heart that it is not fair and it is not right. I am walking off my job with my fellow educators on International Women’s Day in protest against the appallingly low wages I and thousands of other women are paid.
I work in early childhood, a female-dominated sector. We were once described as “childcare workers”. This changed when the National Quality Framework was introduced and we were given the title of “educator”.
More than once I have seen the raised eyebrow and heard the grunt of mockery about the development – usually from the ill-informed, much like Senator David Leyonhjelm who thinks the work is all about “wiping noses”, with no experience or knowledge of what our role actually entails. They know zilch about child development, sod all about relationships, and think pedagogy is something to do with children’s shoes.
We are called educators because we follow an actual real, hunky dory curriculum, the Early Years Learning Framework from the department of education. Under different governments, we have been kicked in and out of the education portfolio as politicians grapple with comprehending that the early years may have an educational component. For the moment we are back in it.
To explain my simmering frustration with the accepted order in society I ponder the nature of “care” and the always present dichotomy between care and education. Why is it that any role in life that involves the term “care” seems to be met with just a hint of derision? How did we get to the stage that people who have empathy, sympathy, a sense of right or wrong, the capacity to be generous in thought and action, an aptitude to serve people, a belief that their work contributes to the common good became the subclass in a questionable economic equation? I believe this comes directly from perceptions of gender and the associated archetypal characteristics.
The idea that society has a duty to recognise that women do matter, that women do count for something is not new. However, it has not stopped the obvious correlation between domestic servitude and work traditionally done by women being extremely low paid.
To be classified as any form of servant, immediately puts you in a category that screams underclass. You have masters, mistresses, bosses and you know you are not a priority. You must come after everyone else. You must be last.
It is this subconscious understanding of female subordination that holds women back from protesting. For women of my generation, the accepted status quo has always been with us.
The major flaw with any economic theory based on a shallow and gender-biased interpretation is that so much of what people do that contributes to society, particularly in what have been unpaid roles, is discounted and ignored. This is despite research and evidence to the contrary. In “Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women Are Worth”, Marilyn Waring describes different ways feminist have tried to expose “the bias against women that pervades economic theory”.
This bias is evident when you look at what is traditionally seen as women’s work. Women are an essential part of society. We hold together the household. We hold together the family. We care for our partners (though in a genuine relationship is certainly not a one way street). We care for our children. We care for others’ children. We care for our parents as they grow older. And we fill the jobs equated with caring. In my sector, 97% of us are women.
It is not because the work we do has no value. It is because the work we do has an intrinsic female association. “Care” in any role should not be seen as of little value. If anything, it should be seen as value-adding to the role. Look at aged care workers, educators, nurses, teachers, social workers, psychologists, therapists, tutors, doctors. None of these professions are seen only as caring, but care is understood as intrinsic to their role.
But it is we in early childhood who forever need to point out that we are the same: we do caring but our whole job is far more than that.
I am walking off because I want the government and society to recognise that an early childhood educator is a professional role and one that must be given its deserved status. The first real step, a big step, in this direction is to receive professional wages, not 20 patronising dollars an hour.
Margaret Carey is a director of a Sydney early childhood centre and member of United Voice, the early childhood union. On International Women’s Day 2017 she will be joining educators across Australia walking off the job to demand government funding for equal pay.
