Gender and Citizenship in Australia: Government Approaches to Paid Parental Leave Policy 1996-2017

In Western welfare states women’s citizenship rights are increasingly conferred on the basis of labor force participation rather than maternalism. This article examines the policy positions and discourse associated with paid parental leave of successive Australian governments from 1996 to 2017 to examine the extent to which this has occurred in the Australian context. It reveals a slow movement away from maternalism that has been constrained by path dependencies associated with the male breadwinner model and is shaped by philosophies of liberalism and small government.