All Cabinet Submissions and NPPs must include a Gender Analysis Summary – including when a Gender Impact Assessment is also required. The Gender Analysis Summary provides information to decision makers about whether the policy proposal has a gendered impact or not, and what that impact is.
A Gender Analysis Summary provides an overview of the gender analysis. Completing a Gender Analysis Summary can help policy makers determine whether a proposal meets the criteria for completing a Gender Impact Assessment (refer to Part 4).
A Gender Impact Assessment must be completed if the proposal meets one or more of the following criteria:
- The proposal has a significant positive or negative impact on gender equality
- The proposal targets cohorts of people who can typically be disadvantaged
- The proposal relates to a gender segregated industry
- The proposal establishes a National Partnership Agreement (or like agreement)
- The total value of the proposal is $250 million or more over the forward estimates
Each department is responsible for self-assessing whether their proposal meets the criteria for a Gender Impact Assessment.
All revenue, savings and expenditure proposals must be assessed against the criteria to determine if a Gender Impact Assessment is required. Further detail on application of the criteria is at Appendix A.
What does this mean in practice?
All proposals require some level of gender analysis, which should be targeted and proportional and draw on evidence. A Gender Analysis Summary should provide an overview of the gender analysis, and is required for all proposals.
Proposals that meet one or more of the Gender Impact Assessment criteria are also required to complete and attach a Gender Impact Assessment to the proposal. A Gender Impact Assessment will generally rely on a more thorough gender analysis. However, some proposals will meet one or more criteria but initial gender analysis will show that there is not a significant gender impact. These proposals do not require deeper analysis and can attach an abbreviated Gender Impact Assessment.
The Gender Impact Assessment aims to provide policy makers with more detailed gender analysis, including on how a policy can avoid, ameliorate or address negative impacts. A Gender Impact Assessment can also identify concrete actions to advance gender equality.
All gender analysis should use and cite data or evidence in support of the assessment. If data or evidence is not available, the analysis should show ways to improve data availability.
Gender equality in universal systems
Systems, programs or services may be designed to be equally accessible to everyone, that is, to be universal. However, that does not mean that all people will benefit from them in the same way. Equal access does not always mean equitable access. Different people may access programs or services in different ways based on their gender and/or other characteristics, and to a greater or lesser extent than other people or groups. There may also be gendered barriers to different people accessing the program or service.
For example, although public transport is available for everyone, women are more likely than men to use public transport to travel to work4. In the health sector, services like diagnostic imaging and blood tests are available to everyone, but may be used more frequently by women for example, for antenatal care. Digital mental health services are more likely to be used by women, who have stronger health-seeking behaviours5. These differences in usage need to be taken into account when assessing whether a proposal is likely to have a positive, negative or neutral impact on gender equality, and analysis should include available data and evidence, including qualitative evidence from stakeholders and users.
If the impact is not known or data is not available, a proposal should outline how gender disaggregated data can be collected to understand gendered impacts over time.