The most recently available data shows that gender inequality is pervasive, persistent and impacts public and private domains throughout a woman’s entire life course. Women experience a lifetime of economic inequality and insecurity, despite performing essential activities in paid and unpaid capacities. These activities include the care and education of children and the care of elderly people in both family life and in paid employment.

These activities enable our economy to function, yet this work is undervalued, insecure, often invisible and impedes women’s capacity to accumulate wealth, progress in careers and have the same economic opportunities as men.

Key data points

1. Australia is held back from reaching its economic potential

Our nation’s current systems place the needs and interests of men over those of women in public, professional and domestic realms. These outdated systems, policies and norms discount over 50 per cent of our population. This means we are underutilising the economic potential of more than 50 per cent of our community. Australia simply does not work without women’s active participation in our society and workforces.

Key data confirms

• Australian women are much less likely to work full-time than women in many other OECD countries.^[8]
• Despite women’s increasing labour force participation rates, gender segregation persists across the economy. For example, 76.2 per cent of employees in the ‘health care and social assistance’ industry are female, and 86.5 per cent of employees in the ‘construction industry’ are male.^[9]
• We could add $128 billion to the economy through boosting women’s workforce participation and productivity growth if we tackle the factors holding women back.^[10]

Australia is underutilising 50% of its economic potential.

2. We do not properly value feminised work, women’s work, or women’s careers

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how vital women’s labour, both paid and unpaid, is to society and the economy, and simultaneously exacerbated many of the gendered inequalities of the Australian labour market.^[11]

Despite women’s work, both paid and unpaid, acting as the backbone of our economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, today women’s work is still undervalued. The following data points demonstrate this in various different ways.

Feminised work

• Women are more likely to be reliant on award-based, low-paid, insecure work, and tend to work fewer hours than men. ^[12]
• Most casual workers are women, and some of the most highly feminised sectors are the most casualised – e.g., 42 per cent of disability support workers are casually employed. ^[13]
• By the early years of primary school, gender stereotypes have already influenced children to aspire to traditionally male and female designated vocations. ^[14]
• Women do the majority of formal care work, which is generally low paying – e.g. 92 per cent of early childhood education and care workers are women. ^[15]

Gendered division of unpaid care and domestic work

• Women spend 30.2 hours per week on unpaid care and housework, compared to men who spend 21.8 hours per week. ^[16]
• In 2021, 80.4 per cent of lone-parent families were female. ^[17]
• The care that women perform impacts on their capacity to engage in paid labour and on the volume of hours they can work: for example, while women’s labour force participation rate (62.5 per cent) has risen considerably, it remains much lower than men’s (71.3 per cent). ^[18]
• Employed women work substantially fewer hours than men.^[19]
• 74.3 per cent of Carer Allowance payment recipients are female.^[20]

Gender pay gap

• Due to a range of factors (including the historical undervaluation of female dominated industries and women being under-represented in managerial and leadership roles) women earn considerably less than men, even in industries where women are overrepresented.
• The gender pay gap for mean adult weekly ordinary full-time earnings is 13.3 per cent, and the gender pay gap for mean weekly cash earnings for all employees is 28.1 per cent. ^[21]
• Motherhood attracts a significant earnings penalty. Across the first five years of parenting their first child, women’s earnings are reduced by 55 per cent on average. During the same time men’s earnings remain unaffected. ^[22]
• On average, women work 32.5 hours per week compared to 39.3 for men. ^[23] A significant portion (57.32 per cent) of underemployed Australians are women. ^[24] Women account for 70.4 per cent of the part-time workforce. ^[25]
• Strong industry and occupational gender segregation persists. ^[26] Women are largely working in the same jobs they did 35 years ago. ^[27] The majority of employees continue to work in industries dominated by one gender. Only 46.5 per cent of employees work in ‘gender-mixed’ industries. ^[28] Men still disproportionately hold managerial and leadership positions, even in female-dominated industries. ^[29]
• In 2018, only 22 per cent of Australian start-ups were founded by women. In the 2022 financial year, only 0.7 per cent of private-sector funding secured by start-ups went to solely women-founded companies. ^[30] 

There is a pay gap of $255.40 per week between men and women who work fulltime hours.^[31] This is ‘best-case scenario’ in terms of a gap because it does not account for non-full-time work (mostly undertaken by women) or include calculations relating to overtime, bonuses and loadings (where men earn significantly more).

3. Gendered inequalities compound over the life course

Australia’s social norms are visible in the persistent and pervasive discrimination faced by women each day and the unequal distribution of power, resources and opportunity between men and women.

30% of Australian men don't think gender inequality exists.

These norms create and maintain an environment where women experience measurable and material disadvantages which compound over their lifetimes.

• On average, an Australian woman earns $1 million less than an Australian man across her career.^[33]
• If current working patterns continue, the average 25-year-old woman today, who has at least one child, can expect to earn $2 million less over lifetime than the average 25-year-old man who becomes a father.^[34]
• In the 2019-20 financial year, the median superannuation balance of women aged 65+ years was $168,000 for women, compared to $208,200 for men.^[35]

Despite this compelling evidence, there is still considerable resistance to change that would elevate women’s social and economic position. This might be explained by the very powerful gender norms that operate in Australian society which minimise women’s experiences of inequality.

• Australian men are more traditional in their gender attitudes than the global average, with 30 per cent of Australian men believing gender inequality doesn’t really exist.^[36]

The current state of women’s economic experiences clearly demonstrates economic inequality across a lifetime. As we look to a shared and rapidly evolving future, we must recognise the essential role of women in responding to future challenges, such as climate change or the skills shortage, with a more inclusive and fit-for-purpose economy that enables full participation by women.