Caring and domestic responsibilities among graduates of STEM and other fields

An important factor for attraction and retention in the workforce is work-life balance.

This is particularly important for creating a diverse workforce. Domestic work is part of life and varies from person to person depending on individual needs and circumstances. 

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data follows a cohort of 162,000 people who graduated with a university qualification in 2011, and can be shown in linked datasets. The following data compares hours of domestic work and caring responsibilities in 2021, 10 years after graduation, across fields of education and occupation types. 

Data insights

Domestic work

Among people who gained qualifications in 2011 and were employed 10 years later in 2021, women were completing more domestic work than men.

For all employed people and all fields of education, there were 31% of women doing 15 hours or more of domestic work per week, compared to 13% of men.

Of women working in STEM occupations (all fields of education), 28% were doing 15 hours or more of domestic work per week. This was lower than women in health or non-STEM occupations, at 31%.

Looking at all employed people by field of education:

• 26% of women with STEM qualifications were doing 15 hours or more of domestic work per week, compared to 13% of men.
• 31% of women with non-STEM qualifications were doing 15 hours or more of domestic work per week, compared to 13% of men.
• 36% of women with health qualifications were doing 15 hours or more of domestic work per week, compared to 14% of men.

Child care

Among women who gained a STEM qualification in 2011 and were unemployed or not in the labour force in 2021, the majority had child care responsibilities (53%). This was different to men, where 18% of STEM-qualified men who were unemployed or not in the labour force in 2021 had child care responsibilities.

This is similar when looking at graduates from other fields of education:

• 55% of women with a 2011 non-STEM qualification who were unemployed or not in the labour force in 2021 had child care responsibilities, compared to 22% of men.
• 61% of women with a 2011 health qualification who were unemployed or not in the labour force in 2021 had child care responsibilities, compared to 25% of men.

This could suggest that the reason for women to be unemployed or not working 10 years after graduation is their child care responsibilities.

Looking at all employed people shows the group with the lowest proportion of child care responsibilities is STEM-qualified women. Of the cohort of all employed STEM-qualified women, 36% reported they provided unpaid child care to their own or other children in 2021. This was lower than:

• employed STEM-qualified men (38%).
• employed people with non-STEM qualifications (44% of women had child care responsibilities and 40% of men).
• employed people with health qualifications (52% of women had child care responsibilities and 46% of men).

STEM was also the only field of education where the proportion of men with child care responsibilities was higher than women with child care responsibilities.

This could suggest that child care responsibilities are an important factor determining workforce participation for women who have STEM qualifications and/or work in STEM occupations.

About the data

The occupations on this page use definitions based on the 2021 Census of Population and Housing.

Our department commissioned the Australian Bureau of Statistics to carry out this longitudinal study. 

The ABS looked at the occupational outcomes of the 2011 cohort of university graduates for the following 10 years through to 2021. To do this, the ABS analysed the Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA, formerly Multi-Agency Data Integration Project or MADIP) which is a linked dataset providing anonymised and aggregated analysis of the following:

• 2011 higher education data
• 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census) data
• 2010–11 to 2020–21 personal income tax income tax return (PIT ITR) data 

This allowed the ABS to determine income, occupation and industry details through the years from 2011 until 2021. For each chosen variable of analysis, the outcomes have been explored using one of these datasets. Coverage of the 2011 graduate cohort in each of the linked datasets differs, because of differences between the data collected in those datasets and the PLIDA “spine” (key linking information). For more information, see ABS 2024.

We have grouped the qualifications, occupations and industries broadly into STEM, non-STEM and health, and used granular details for analysis where possible. Determinations between STEM, health and non-STEM occupations and industries were based on the 2021 Census of Population and Housing, see STEM Equity Monitor methodology for more information.

This analysis covers 10 years of graduates’ careers and builds on the previous output of the STEM Equity Monitor, which showed only the initial 5 years of graduates’ careers. Changes to the size of the 2011 cohort between the current and previous analysis are because of improvements to the PLIDA “spine” (key linking information), and changes to the characteristics of people, such as those recorded as deceased or visiting from overseas in the 2021 Census were removed from the cohort.

Read about the ABS’ Person Level Integrated Data Asset.

Read more about our methodology and this data.