WORKING women caring for elderly parents are twice as likely to feel their work and family life are out of balance as employed mothers of young children.

An analysis of an Australian Bureau of Statistics employment survey by sociologist Barbara Pocock finds 30 per cent of employed women looking after a frail or elderly person say they "rarely or never" feel their work and family responsibilities are in line, compared with 16 per cent of women caring for children aged up to four years old.

The findings, contained in Professor Pocock's new book, Time Bomb: Work, Rest and Play in Australia Today, are evidence of the need for government to focus on the plight of workers trying to juggle their jobs and care for their parents, she says.

In particular, Professor Pocock, director of the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia, said the Fair Work Act, which is under review, should be amended to give these people the right to request flexible working arrangements, a statutory right that is now available only to parents of young or disabled children.

Balancing care and work is particularly difficult for women, says the book, published today.

"Women caring for a frail/aged person were especially negatively affected: 30 per cent felt work and family responsibilities were rarely or never in balance," it says. "This strain was twice as common among such women as among mothers of children under four.

"Clearly not all care is the same, and while care for children receives much more attention than care for frail or aged people or those with a disability, the latter two types of care are more difficult to fit in with paid work."

Professor Pocock said the reason was clear. "There's no happy ending for carers of the elderly," she said.

"There's little of the reward that goes with raising a child. And the care of an elderly parent can be tricky and unpredictable."

The book calls for legislative reform to provide these carers with more support.

"The Fair Work Act's provisions to allow parents of pre-school children and young people under 18 with disabilities to request more flexible working arrangements -- modest as these are -- are not available to carers of the frail aged or adults with long-term health problems or disabilities," it says.

"However, their needs parallel those of parents of young children, and on average exceed them.

"Providing more flexibility and support for these kinds of working carers is likely to reap very significant benefits for some of society's most pressed and stressed working carers, as well as those for whom they care."

Greens MP Adam Bandt said this week he would introduce a bill into the federal parliament next week to change the Fair Work Act to help carers get the support they need.