Karen Brooks considers the implications for our children, and for us as parents and carers, of a culture of fear and anxiety. Be afraid, be very afraid,” warns Geena Davis’s character in the 1986 sci-fi horror movie The Fly. Many years later, it seems that as...
Flexible workplace policies designed to improve gender gaps in employment and pay might actually make things worse for women, write Leah Ruppanner and Jordy Meekes. Flexible work has been on offer to both men and women in many companies for decades. However, it is usually women...
Already badly off, single parents went dramatically backwards during COVID, report Tom Crowley, Danielle Wood and Esther Suckling. These parents are raising our future adults. Single parents with dependent children — eight out of ten of them women — were far more likely than others to...
Karen Ford, Andrea Middleton and Steven Campbell asked children around the world what they knew about COVID. This is what they said. During the pandemic, children have been separated from family and friends, schools have been closed and there have been limitations on important activities, such...
Nicholas Gamble, Christine Grové, Emily Berger, and Kelly-Ann Allen, suggest there are 5 things to consider! Homeschooling registrations for children in Victoria in 2020 grew by almost four times the rate of the previous year, recent reports show. Some families who had children learning from home during...
Since COVID-19, the simple act of hand-washing has been elevated beyond the mundane into a public health headline and potentially life-saving act. People wash their hands now. Soaps and sanitisers are in demand, and also ubiquitous – in handbags, backpacks, at pub and shop doors. This is...
But at the same cost mothers have long endured! Research by Leah Ruppanner,Caitlyn Collins, Liana Christin Landivar, William ScarboroughandXiao Tan has shown. The COVID-19 pandemic was heralded as an opportunity to restart gender expectations at home. Our research shows Australian fathers have stepped into more participatory...
During a pandemic, the number of air changes per hour should be higher than usual, report Mary Myla Andamon, Jin Woo and Priya Rajagopalan. The World Health Organisation recommends six air changes per hour. Victorian students are learning in classrooms with very poor air quality. Our...
One potential hurdle to vaccine acceptance is needle fear. Needles are nothing to fear, writes Therese O'Sullivan The COVID vaccine rollout has placed the issue of vaccination firmly in the spotlight. A successful rollout will depend on a variety of factors, one of which is vaccine...
It is estimated around half the world’s students’ schools remain shut down, writes Neil Selwyn. All told, this has been a potentially damaging disruption to the education of a generation. But one of the few positive outcomes from this experience is an opportunity to rethink how...
