Women’s equality is at the heart of what we do as a Government. It is essential for strengthening our economy, our society and our nation.
The Australian Government has committed to putting gender equality at the heart of policy and decision making, and making women’s economic equality a central economic imperative. This requires policy which acknowledges and addresses inequality.
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 may reveal that the construction industry is male dominated, so any benefits provided to the construction workforce would disproportionately benefit men.
What is gender?
The language used to refer to gender is important. Sex and gender are commonly used interchangeably, including in legislation.
Sex refers to sex characteristics while gender is about social and cultural difference in identity, expression and experience.
A person’s sex and gender may not necessarily be the same. Some people may identify as a different gender to their birth sex and some people may identify as neither exclusively male nor female (gender non-binary) (ABS, The Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, 2020).