Australia is currently held back from reaching its full social and economic potential by pervasive and systemic gender inequality. Entrenched and rigid gender norms and enduring bias maintain a social context where gender inequality is assumed, accepted and encoded in everyday life.[6]
Current data shows that inequality is prevalent and persistent, and it impacts a woman’s public and private experiences across her entire lifetime. Many women face even greater barriers and disadvantages because of their intersecting identities and experiences.
Women’s economic inequality has become normalised and is often assumed to be ‘natural’ or the result of women’s personal choices. There is clear evidence to show this thinking is out of step with the ambitions and interests of our highly educated female population and with forging a fair society. It also clashes with the development of a modern and vibrant global economy.
Australia faces several key economic challenges in the coming decade, including managing global economic uncertainty, inequality, geopolitical tensions, transitioning to clean energy while climate change challenges our communities, an ageing population and rapid technological advances. These challenges also provide opportunities to shift Australia’s economic policy settings and unlock the value of women’s full economic participation.
The current realities
This report identifies five economic pillars where gendered economic inequality is prevalent:
Care
Australia relies on women to carry the greatest share of unpaid work in homes and families, while paid care work, which is often performed in feminised sectors, is low-quality and undervalued.
Work
Women’s labour force participation and workplace experience is typically worse than their male counterparts. It is characterised by disparity in paid working hours; vertical labour market stratification; horizontal labour market segmentation; the undervaluation of feminised work; insecurity and precarity; and discrimination and disrespect.
Education and Skills
Australian women are highly educated, yet the influence of gendered norms shape the educational pathways and career opportunities available to girls, boys, women and men. Meanwhile, women experience incomplete and disrupted learning across their lives as they juggle paid work, unpaid domestic labour, child-rearing and caring for others (e.g., ageing parents or grandparents).
Tax and Transfers
There is currently a misaligned system that traps women in cycles of poverty and compounds exclusion from economic participation. The interactions between the tax and transfer system, combined with onerous eligibility requirements, often disincentivise women from full workforce participation, despite their desire to engage in paid work and forge flourishing careers.
Governments
Currently, the government does not capitalise enough on its ability to lead positive change, including in its role as a policymaker, funder, investor, procurer of goods and services, and as a major employer. Some action taken by the government amplifies gender-based inequality.
Current data shows that inequality is prevalent and persistent, and it impacts a woman's public and private experiences across her entire lifetime.
Women’s experiences of inequality have been well-understood and documented for decades by governments, academics, unions, businesses and civil society organisations. The evidence is clear and the case for change is powerful.
Economic inequality is not experienced in the same way by all women in all contexts. Current data shows that economic inequality has greater and compounding impacts for women whose experiences intersect with other forms of inequality, bias and discrimination. This includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, women with disability, LGBTIQ+ women and migrant women. [7]
Women’s economic inequality is compounded at other intersections too, including policy areas such as safety, justice, health and housing. These systems reflect the same gendered norms and bias that result in entrenched disadvantage and poorer outcomes for women.
Some of these serious and complex areas have specific plans, such as the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030 and the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–32, while the forthcoming National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality will provide guidance for community action.
This report provides a snapshot of women’s economic inequality and the current economic loss to Australia. It sets out an ambitious roadmap for a decade of repair, reform and renewal.
Where we want to go
A transformed and contemporary economy will be characterised by the following outcomes:
Care
Unpaid care and domestic work in homes and families is shared, valued and understood to be a core element of our economy. Care economy sectors provide quality services for those engaging and offer fair pay and conditions for their workers.
Work
Women can thrive in safe, respectful, secure, professionally paid work with access to high-quality flexibility in any sector or location. There is better alignment in the gendered distribution of paid and unpaid work leading to more options, higher incomes and better retirement savings for women.
Education and Skills
Women have opportunities for education and to develop skills across a lifetime through accessible, flexible and affordable education and training programs.
Tax and Transfers
The tax and transfer system encourages and incentivises equal economic participation and economic security across women’s lifetimes.
Government
The government operates in the interests of gender-equal outcomes by embedding and normalising gender-responsive budgeting and gender analysis, and plays a significant leadership role as a steward and advocate with other state and territory governments to embed gender equality into the policies and processes of all governments. Progress towards these outcomes must be measured and reported annually to Parliament and the community, as described in recommendation 1.1.