Dr. Marian Baird works at the University of Sydney, Australia and she was a visiting scholar at the MIT Workplace Center and the Institute for Work and Employment Relations in the summer/fall of 2003.

Her main research area is parental leave (maternity, paternity and adoption leave) in Australia. She is currently undertaking two major studies in Australia. The first is of the availability, incidence and duration of maternity, paternity and parental leave in Australia including a population survey, organizational case studies and household interviews. The second is examining the ‘dual agenda’ of gender equity and organizational effectiveness in two large Australian organisations, one in the private sector and one in the public sector.

Baird teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels and is co-author of Strategic Human Resource Management, a major Australian HRM text and regularly publishes in academic journals. Marian is also a contributor to Worksite. Her short articles have covered topics as diverse as working life in Australia and the USA, future work arrangements, contemporary selection techniques, labor hire arrangements and the changing nature of the contract of employment. For selected publications, visit Baird’s web page (http://www.econ.usyd.edu.au/content.php?pageid=928).

Expertise: Dual Earner; Older Workers; Flexible Schedules; Inclusion: Working Caregivers; Paid Family Leave; Part-time: Salaried and Professional Employees; Promotion: Working Caregivers; FMLA (Australian policy); Paid Sick Leave; Work-Family Balance; Work-Family Conflict; and Work/Life Integration