Women's lifework: labour market transition experiences of women: final report prepared for the Commonwealth, State Territories and New Zealand Ministers' Conference on the Status of Women (MINCO) funded by the Womens Activity Trust Fund

The study aimed to capture the labour market transition experiences of Australian mothers who are balancing work and family responsibilities. It used qualitative and quantitative methods, involving in-depth interviews with 20 mothers and an analysis of quantitative data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) relating to women's labour force participation, family formation, work preferences and life satisfaction. Key findings were about labour force trajectories, a range of work preferences, constraining and facilitating factors that influence women's workforce decisions, unique experiences of particular groups (sole parents, women of non-English speaking background, Aboriginal women, rural women) and areas for further research. The study reveals the contextual, fluid and complex nature of the life and work decisions that women who are parents make over the life course.