The 50-year fight to recognise rural mums' unpaid work

The 50-year fight to recognise rural mums' unpaid work

Outback women are expected to supervise their children's education for years without getting paid, as a five-decade fight for recognition continues.

The 50-year fight to recognise rural mums’ unpaid work

For Matilda Pearce, a school day might involve online classes in an outback farmhouse, doing maths in a paddock, practising spelling words in the car or reading a book on the long trip to town. “There’s definitely no average day,” the eight-year-old’s mum, farmer Rebecca Pearce, tells AAP during a break from herding cattle. Ms Pearce, who lives on a station 300 kilometres northeast of Broken Hill, in far western NSW, splits her days between mana…