Gender Equality

In many ways recently, women have been at the forefront of our collective consciousness.  As well as the Matildas, Barbie became one of the highest grossing films of all time with feminism and the patriarchy being talked about by millions of people; our female Olympic athletes winning nearly three-quarters of Australia's gold medals, six of the seven gold in the pool and coming third on the female medal table; Sam Mostyn AC becoming the 28th Governor General; and women become CEOs of our largest companies, such as Shemara Wikramanayake at the millionaires factory, Macquarie, Amanda Bardwell at Woolworths, Leah Weckert at Coles and Vanessa Hudson at Qantas. 

However, despite some progress over recent years, Australian women still face deep and widespread gender inequality and continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of unpaid labour across all spheres of life. From being caregivers, nurturers, and educators to taking on professional roles and community leadership, women’s contributions are often undervalued and unpaid, perpetuating economic inequality. 

This progress may be stalling with Australians who view gender equality as ‘very important’ falling from 85 per cent in 2022 to 70 per cent in 2025, while those who believe Australia has gone ‘too far’ in promoting equality have doubled to 19 per cent. 

Our gender equality is poor compared to other countries. The 2024 Global Gender Gap Index shows that Australia is 42nd with economic participation and opportunity, just ahead of Mongolia and behind China; 84th for educational attainment, behind Kyrgyzstan and Armenia; and 88th for health and survival, equal with Ecuador and The Gambia.

Gender inequality occurs when men are valued more than women, and have more power, resources and opportunities, whilst gender equality means that women, men, girls and boys enjoy equal rights, resources, opportunities and protection. The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 protects women from unfair treatment based on their sex, marital or relationship status, pregnancy, family responsibilities and breastfeeding. It also makes sexual harassment against the law.

Gender equality is a human right. It gives all people more choices and opportunities to reach their potential and live happy and fulfilled lives. Gender equality is also good for the community and for the economy.  More equal societies are more cohesive and gender equality boosts economic growth.

Australian women are among the most highly educated in the world. Girls are more likely than boys to complete Year 12 education and women aged 25 to 44 are far more likely than men to have tertiary qualifications. However, this has not translated into better economic outcomes for women.

The lack of gender equity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) has been highlighted by all governments.  Girls and women are underrepresented at all stages of the STEM pathway, from schooling through to tertiary education and employment. For instance, women make up only 37 per cent of enrolments in university STEM courses and just 17 per cent of VET STEM enrolments. Only 15 per cent of STEM-qualified jobs are held by women. 

In 2025, AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda announced a gift of $100 million to the University of Sydney to fund a two-decade program addressing the under representation of women studying and working in STEM with a particular focus on western Sydney.

With his view that ‘talent is equally distributed in the community but opportunity is not’, starting at six partner high schools from 2027, the program will offer tutoring and mentoring in maths, physics and engineering across years seven to 10, before 1,200 girls will be offered a place in the ‘Khuda Academy’ in years 11 and 12.  Those who graduate from the academy will receive a guaranteed scholarship and place at the university, including funds for university accommodation and mentoring throughout their degree.

The Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) notes that ‘workplace gender equality is achieved when people are able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of gender’.  But, fifty-five years after the landmark equal pay decision that first saw Australian women win the right to be paid the same as men for doing the same work, Australia’s full-time total remuneration gender pay gap remains at 22 per cent, meaning men working full-time earn $28,425 on average a year more than women working full-time.  This is not isolated to women-dominated industries - 100 per cent of occupations have a gender pay gap in favour of men.

For instance, it is inexcusable that in Australia the accountancy profession has a ‘stubborn’ 18 per cent gender pay gap with men earning an extra $29,445 in total remuneration annually due to women holding less than one in four equity partnerships in public practice, in addition to systematic bias. 

The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 mandates that employers with 100 or more employees report annually on their progress towards gender equality using specific indicators like gender composition of the workforce and equal remuneration.  This has enabled the WGEA to publish the gender pay gaps of nearly 5,000 Australian employers annually.  These employers are now being held to account on their gender equality performance by employees, investors and the community. For the first time, employers are being challenged to articulate the drivers of their gap and their plans to address it.

The pay gap starts early with university-educated women earning less than men from the very start of their careers. For instance, dental graduates earn $10,700 more in their first full-time job if they are male, and female law graduates earn $4,700 less than men. Male architects receive a $2,400 pay premium for their first full-time job, whereas female scientists earn $3,000 less than their male counterparts with a degree in mathematics or science.

Superannuation balances for men at retirement are, on average, a third more than those of women. In practice, this means that women, particularly single women, are at greater risk of experiencing poverty, housing stress, and homelessness in retirement. One in three Australian women does not have any superannuation at all, including 60 per cent of women aged 65 to 69.

Despite heightened awareness and public discourse about gender equality in Australian workplaces, Chief Executive Women’s analysis of the companies in the ASX300 showed only 25 women CEOs with 91 per cent of CEO positions held by men.  With 82 per cent of CEO pipeline roles filled by men, an increasing number of companies have no women leaders in pipeline roles.  Further, only 27 per cent have gender balanced executive leadership teams and 7 in 10 executive leadership roles are still held by men.

The underrepresentation of women in the workforce has an adverse impact on the Australian economy. If women’s participation matched men’s, Australia’s GDP would increase by $30.7 billion annually, or 8.7 per cent, to $353 billion by 2050 and create an additional 1 million full-time equivalent workers with post-school qualifications.  Another analysis adds $128 billion to the value of the Australian economy that can be realised by purposefully removing the persistent and pervasive barriers to women’s full and equal participation in economic activity.

Unsurprisingly, gender equality has been shown to increase organisational performance and enhance the attraction and retention of employees. A study of over a thousand leading firms across 35 countries and 24 industries found that gender diversity relates to more productive companies, as measured by market value and revenue, but only where there is the widespread cultural belief that gender diversity is important.

Research by McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21 per cent more likely to experience above average profitability whilst companies with low representation of women and other diverse groups were 29 per cent more likely to underperform on profitability. 

Women entrepreneurs are also under represented. A 2022 Deloitte Access Economics report found that only 22 per cent of Australian start-ups are founded by women, with only 0.7 per cent of private start-up funding in 2021/22 received by solely women-founded businesses.  Boston Consulting Group, in partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation, found that boosting the number of female entrepreneurs to parity with men would boost the Australian economy by between $71 billion and $135 billion.

As well as being disadvantaged in education and employment, women bear the burden of care at home. While there have been changes in traditional caring roles, with increasing numbers of women entering the workforce and more gender balance in care, particularly parenting roles, women are still overwhelmingly responsible for care. On average, women spend 64 per cent of their ‘working hours’ with no remuneration, compared to 36 per cent for men.

Australia’s entrenched gender inequality has serious implications for the health, safety, and wellbeing of women and girls in Australia.

Two-thirds of Australian women report experiencing gender bias in health care, especially in sexual and reproductive health and chronic pain. Common themes included women’s sense of dismissal and not being believed, disrespectful treatment, significant financial burdens and poorer health outcomes due to delayed diagnoses and treatments.  Furthermore, a 2025 Victorian report found the health care system was built around ‘Caucasian male biology’, making it difficult for women and girls to access care and support for pain.

Because of a lifetime of gendered inequality, income poverty, family violence and caring responsibilities, tragically, single older women are the fastest growing group of those presenting to homelessness services.  Half of women who choose to leave a violent relationship will end up in poverty or homelessness.

With less time in the paid workforce than men, the gender pay gap, separation, unpaid caregiving for older family members and family violence, women have less savings and up to $94,700 lower income during retirement than men.

Gender inequality feeds into family and domestic violence through the entrenched power and influence held by men, whether in our political systems, workplaces, sport, arts, home and the community, with violence against women through excusing male behaviour, sense of ownership of female partners and gender stereotyping.

This also means that sexual harassment is still common in Australian workplaces.In a five-year period to 2022, more than two in five women reported having been sexually harassed at work. In male-dominated sectors, that's even higher.  Three out of five women working in telecommunications, over half of all women working in construction and more than half of migrant women (including 82 per cent in construction) reported sexual harassment.  It is estimated that workplace sexual harassment costs the Australian economy $2.6 billion annually in lost productivity.