The male breadwinner is gone. Why working from home is necessary for modern families

SBS Australia

a day ago

Eb Yusuf had to return to work when her daughter was just eight months old — an experience she describes as traumatising. "I was with my girl 24/7 up until that point and then I had to leave for eight, nine hours a day," the Sydney mother says. Yusuf's employer at the time required her to return to the office full-time but she later found a part-time role that allowed her to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 42-year-old is one of many Australian parents who say working from home and other flexible arrangements have become essential to the smooth functioning of their households and satisfaction with their family life.
Yusuf, who has since returned to full-time hours but continues to work from home three days a week, says she doesn't want to miss out on raising her child.
"I think in 2025 [work from home is] crucial," she says.
I enjoy being able to be there for all those milestones [for my daughter], I don't want someone else to be having more time with my child than I am. Yusuf's husband also works from home three days a week, and she says this helps them to pick up their daughter at a reasonable time from after-school care. On days she works from home, she is also able to use some of her 30-40 minute commute time for exercise or other activities.
"[It gives me time to] do those things that make me a good mum, and a good employee, and a good wife, and happy within myself, so I think that's really important," she says.
Cost of living pressures force both parents to work Demographer Liz Allen, of the Australian National University, says workplaces have historically lagged in supporting parents in working effectively while maintaining their priorities as parents and their own personal well-being. But working from home is enabling that and also breaks down barriers to gender equality in the workplace. "It gives an expectation to workers that they have a right to work from home to make that work-life juggle [easier]," Allen says.
For many women, staying home to look after their children is no longer an option.
We are no longer in a situation where we've got that male breadwinner — single income earner — in a family where a woman stays home and does everything by way of unpaid work. "In order to pay for housing, we need dual-income earners," Allen says.
According to the property listing company Domain, property prices have jumped by 777 per cent over the past three decades in some capital cities, such as Sydney, where the median price of a house is now $1.7 million — compared with a median of $192,819 in March 1993.
House prices in Sydney increased by 777 per cent between 1993 and 2025, according to data from Domain. Source: SBS News But wage growth over a similar period has not kept pace, which has put extra strain on families. Wages in NSW grew by 131.1 per cent between September 1997 and March 2025.
Wages growth in Australia has failed to keep pace with the increased cost of housing. Source: SBS News Women are more likely to work now Social researcher Mark McCrindle points out that women in their early 30s — an age when many would be having children — are now twice as likely to be working compared to their own mothers at the same age.
He explains: "77 per cent of women in their early 30s are in the labour force — it was less than a third a generation ago."
Employment for women aged in their 30s once dropped sharply but now it barely dips. Source: SBS News Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Time Use Survey, conducted between November 2020 and July 2021, McCrindle notes that a third of Australians also report feeling rushed or pressed for time often or always. Around 38 per cent of women reported this, and 32 per cent of men.
Women aged 35 to 44 years were the group most likely to report feeling rushed for time (55 per cent).
McCrindle says working from home is seen as a way of reducing that stress or time pressure, as workplaces are traditionally located in CBDs well away from where people live, and where schools, childcare, shopping and other family and social connections are located. The rising cost of housing has pushed people even further away from workplaces.
"The only way to really make all of that work is to have less time conducting that commute, and that's where I think work from home achieves that," McCrindle says.
Work from home has become a lifeline for parents Yusuf, whose daughter is now seven years old, has been promoted to the senior leadership team at her work, and says her experiences motivated her to support flexibility for employees returning from maternity leave, so they can return to work in a way that makes them comfortable.
"[There's] no clock watching, so you're not making sure people arrive at a certain time or leave at a certain time," she says.
I've heard of businesses saying you need to prove that you've got child care — somebody in the house helping you with the child — in order to be paid for this day of work. "We don't do anything like that because we just know that our people will make it work.," Yusuf says. She hopes flexible work arrangements will ultimately enable women to take on leadership roles while still allowing them to be the parents they aspire to be.
"I know a lot of women in senior roles who have the house husband or the au pair, but I don't want to miss out on that time with my child," she says.
Eb Yusuf is ambitious about her career but doesn't want to miss out on spending time with her daughter. Source: Supplied Yusuf's heard messages directed towards women that if they want to be a boss or CEO, they need to be in the office. But she points out she has a vested interest in the business performing well. "I've worked in this business for nearly five years. They know that I want to do a good job and I'll get it done," she says.
"Whether it's [because I'm clocking on] outside of work hours or whether I just do it quicker ... because I'm a mum and I need to be efficient with my time."
'I just love my life so much more' Kerrie Cullimore, 41, has 12-year-old twins and says she left her previous job because the demands of full-time work and commuting for almost three hours a day were unsustainable with young children. Cullimore says it felt like work took up a huge part of her life.
"I was gone from the house for like 13 hours a day or something ridiculous. [I was home at] 7 o'clock at night," she says.
I remember standing in the bus line looking around at everyone [one] night ... thinking ... 'I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. This is horrible'. Cullimore, who found a part-time role closer to home in the finance department of a media company, says being allowed to work remotely meant her family could make a life-changing move from Sydney to Port Stephens. "I can take my dog for a walk in the morning, the kids get on the bus [just outside my house], I'm here in the afternoon when the kids get home [and] I can make dinner," she says. "I can jump on and off online depending on my work schedule, and I just love my life so much more." The arrangement is also beneficial for her employers as she logs in every day, even though she has a part-time role.
"If I had to go into the office, I would definitely go in for the three days only," she says.
Kerrie Cullimore loves her life after working from home enabled her family to move to Port Stephens. Source: Supplied Cullimore also appreciates that her workplace allows staff members who work from the office to leave around 2.30pm to pick up their children from school. "Nobody cares ... they go home and finish the rest of their work at home," she says.
"It's just so lovely to work for a company that is really accommodating to parents, and understands that parents can be more part of their children's life."
Push to get workers back in the office While working from home is valued by employees, some employers have pushed to get staff back in the office. Welsh says the research agency, which conducts focus group polling, observed how voters began to view Dutton as a risk to their finances because working from home was valued for helping them save money on things like public transport, food and childcare.
"When you've got people that are in survival mode and they see [work from home] as a solution to it — and a solution that is fair — [it's] pretty hard to come out and argue against that," he says.
Redbridge's research found working from home also made mothers feel better about themselves and relieved some of the stress of parenting. "[Mothers] don't feel like they're neglecting their kids ... they can be there to pick the kids up from school rather than having the kids go to an after-school program," he says. "That matters to fathers as well, but it's particularly acute for women."
Dutton is not the only leader trying to roll back work-from-home arrangements.
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30/04/2025 03:56 English A survey of 500 employers conducted in November by recruitment agency Robert Half found 39 per cent wanted workers in the office five days a week in 2025, up from 36 per cent in 2024. Overall, the number of mandated in-office workdays was expected to rise from an average of 3.43 days a week in 2024 to 3.64 days a week in 2025.
Among employers planning to mandate in-office days this year, around 40 per cent believed this would help improve productivity.
The benefits of working from home The Albanese government has identified productivity as a key economic focus of its second term, following data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that shows the productivity growth rate has slowed to its lowest level in at least 20 years. But a report from the Productivity Commission released in September 2021 recommended that governments not stand in the way of working from home. Productivity Commission chair Michael Brennan says: "On balance, working from home can unlock significant gains in terms of flexibility and time for employees, and could even increase the nation's productivity."
"Risks can be managed but we should keep an eye on them and be ready to intervene if necessary."
Brennan says the COVID-19 pandemic had greatly accelerated the take-up of technology that assisted work-from-home opportunities. "In less than two years, we have gone from less than 8 per cent of Australians working from home to 40 per cent," he says.
"While this percentage may not always remain so high, it is inevitable that more Australians will work from home."
Work from home is unlikely to disappear McCrindle believes a hybrid model, where at least some work is done at home, is "baked in" and not just because it benefits families. Working from home gives people more time for hobbies, social engagements, volunteering, and even a side hustle or entrepreneurial activity. It enables older workers to help out with grandkids and those who are neurodivergent to participate in the workplace more fully. It may also help parents who don't want to put their children in childcare to manage care with help from grandparents or extended family while continuing to work. Mothers may also be able to breastfeed for a longer period. "The bigger picture has to be beyond purely GDP [gross domestic product] measures to the other social measures of wellbeing, social fabric, engaged family, and investment in the next generation," McCrindle says. "Any flexible practices that can help accommodate that, I think, is an investment in the future."
This is part one of a series looking at how modern families are balancing the pressures of working life. Next week, we will look at whether other workplace changes can make a difference.