Precarious Employment Women continue to be at a comparative economic disadvantage to men and many face uncertain economic futures. A key reason for this disadvantaged position is women's greater likelihood of experiencing precarious employment, particularly casua l and part-time employment . Women make up the majority of casual workers. Casual employment can place women in a tenuous economic position, offering little or no long-term financial security and restricting their access to services such as home loans. Reliance on casual employment can also impact on women's ability to freely negotiate fair working conditions with their employer.
Women are over-represented amongst the underemployed .
The current inflexibility of working arrangements in many workplaces mitigates against women's full participation in the workforce, particularly those women with prime carer responsibilities. Women represent the greater proportion of carers , with nearly double the number of women than men having primary responsibility as carers. Many workplaces remain unfriendly to women, with cultures which are unsupportive of women's full participation and which devalue women's contributions. Stereotypical attitudes about women workers, and assumptions about the type of work appropriate to women, continue to limit women's opportunities in the workforce and sometimes result in direct and indirect discrimination against them. On a broader level, the threat of violence is a key factor impacting on women's feelings of self-worth and on their capacity to participate fully in public life.