Illustration: Simon Letch Our industrial heritage has probably contributed. For much of the first half of last century, the idea that the man brought home the bacon was enshrined in Australia's highly regulated wage fixing system – the basic wage for males was set at roughly twice the female rate on the premise that men were responsible for families' finances. But the male breadwinner model no longer makes much economic sense. Young women have been investing heavily in higher education as they prepare for long, well-paid careers. Female graduates have outnumbered their male counterparts for many years – 60 per cent of Australians who completed a university course in 2014 were women. Even so, the enduring strength of our male breadwinner model means many of those well educated, highly productive workers are relegated to secondary earners when they have children. Some quit the workforce altogether. Meanwhile, an army of less well-trained males keeps soldiering on full-time.

A man's world: Men still tend to be primary breadwinners in the family. Credit:Louise Kennerley Only 57 per cent of mothers whose youngest child is aged under five participate in the labour force (mostly part-time) compared with 94 per cent of fathers in that category. The gender gap is even wider among full-timers with small children. Analysis by Macquarie University's Professor Gabrielle Meagher found that in 2012 about 85 per cent of all fathers with a youngest child under the age of five worked full-time but for mothers in that category, the rate was only 19 per cent. The long-run increase in female workforce participation has stalled for women aged between 25 and 55 years – in that well-educated cohort participation has been relatively static for more than a decade. It's surprising women's workforce participation, and the work and family policies that underpin it, figured so little in the recent election campaign. There may be no better way for Malcolm Turnbull to deliver on his vision for growth, innovation and budget repair than by increasing the involvement of women in the labour market. It promises to simultaneously lift productivity and bolster the federal coffers. A higher rate of female workforce participation, especially full-time, would also help redress an enduring economic challenge – the enormous gap between male and female superannuation balances.

Traditional views on gender roles, especially in child rearing, have helped preserve the status quo. The University of Queensland's Dr Francisco Perales, who researches attitudes to gender, says adherence to traditional gender roles is relatively strong in Australia compared to other developed nations. Things are changing, but slowly. "While it is still quite prevalent for people to think women should fulfil a traditional homemaker role and be the secondary earner and so on, our research shows a modest trend towards more gender egalitarianism since 2001," he said. But it's not just community attitudes that discouraging women from working more. Experts warn government policies to help parents balance work and family have been going backwards.

The high "effective marginal tax rates" on women returning to work after having children – a feature of Australia's tax and welfare system – have helped entrench mothers as secondary earners. Then there's our broken childcare system. The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, released last week, underscored the need for change when it revealed the average family spend on childcare each week has been growing much faster than household incomes, despite costly government subsidies. Childcare reforms unveiled in the 2015 budget have been postponed because savings to offset the cost of the new scheme were blocked in the Senate. Some of the proposed changes are positive and long overdue but they are unlikely to deliver a major boost to female workforce participation. To do that, Australia's childcare system will require a complete overhaul, not more tinkering. Patricia Apps, professor of public economics at the University of Sydney, argues that if childcare worked more like the school system – where admission is universal and inexpensive for parents – women's workforce participation would surge, savings would improve, the tax base would grow and the fertility rate would rise. She estimates the costs of a universal childcare system would be far outweighed by the economic gains.

"What the government doesn't seem to recognise is if they increased female labour force participation they would make billions," she said. Without sweeping change to the childcare regime the male breadwinner model is likely to linger for some time yet. Matt Wade is a senior writer. Ross Gittins is on leave.