While Australia has made significant gains towards gender equality, inequality still exists in a range of areas across people’s lives. These existing inequalities, as well as ongoing norms and attitudes that can drive inequality, mean that even when a policy seems gender neutral it can still impact people differently, or disproportionately, based on their gender. This means policies can have unintended consequences, exacerbate or perpetuate existing inequality or fail to achieve their intended outcomes.

Exploring data and evidence can reveal these impacts. For example, a government policy which provides additional financial support for the construction industry to support economic growth may appear to have no gender impact on the surface. However, data reveals that the construction industry is male dominated, so any benefits provided to the construction workforce would disproportionately benefit men.