The Australian Government is committed to achieving gender equality in Australia. That is why women’s leadership, representation and decision-making is a key priority area of Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality. Having women in visible, influential and decision-making leadership positions is essential to achieving gender equality.
It is critical that women in decision-making, design, leadership and public life represent the diversity of women in Australia, particularly First Nations women, women with disability and women from diverse backgrounds. When systems, policies, services, technology and infrastructure are designed with a range of diverse perspectives in mind, all Australians benefit. Visible representation of all women, including women with diverse backgrounds, also helps to shift gender attitudes and stereotypes.
The Office for Women supports the Australian Government to deliver a range of key actions including:
- ensuring the Australian Honours system equally reflects the contributions and achievements of Australian women, focusing on the Order of Australia
- improving women’s representation on government boards through setting measurable targets and reporting on these targets at the individual board, portfolio and whole-of-government levels, including Chair and Deputy Chair positions.
- equipping and encouraging more women across the political spectrum to run for public office at local, state and federal levels
- working with the private sector to share good practice and learnings, and encourage companies to boost representation of women on private boards and in executive positions.
Despite the achievements of current and past trailblazers, more needs to be done to achieve gender equality at all levels of decision-making. The Australian Government is committed to driving progress on women’s representation in leadership across public, private, community and political spheres. However, for Australia to become a world leader in gender equality, workplace diversity, access and inclusion, everyone has a role to play.
Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards
In 2024, the Australian Government strengthened its commitment to achieving and maintaining gender balance on Australian Government boards through the release of Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality. It set a number of targets for women’s representation in individual boards, portfolios and at the whole-of-government level, as well as for women’s representation in Chair and Deputy Chair positions.
As part of these commitments, the Office for Women collates an annual report on performance against these targets.
Reports are available at Gender Balance on Australian Government Boards.
BoardLinks
The Office for Women manages and maintains the BoardLinks website which connects Australian women with opportunities to be considered for Australian Government board appointments.
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