The 16th Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed that overall gender disparity across politics, work, health and education has improved slightly this year, decreasing from a predicted 136 years until parity is achieved in 2021 to 132 years in 2022.

But despite more women having moved into paid work over the last decades and, increasingly into leadership positions, the goal of parity has been met with continued barriers. For example, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the gap was set to close within 100 years, meaning this global incident delayed gender equality by at least three decades. And as WFE Managing Director Saadia Zahidi explains in the report, societal expectations, employer policies, the legal environment and the availability of care infrastructure have all continued to limit women’s educational opportunities, as well as career possibilities.

“The economic and social consequences of the pandemic and geopolitical conflict have paused progress and worsened outcomes for women and girls around the world – and risk creating permanent scarring in the labour market”, she said.

Here, we look at how Australia fares out of the 146 countries in the report when it comes to gender parity in our workplaces, and touch on the areas where employers may consider taking coordinated action to create sustained improvements and mitigate the risk of widening the gender parity gap.

Australia’s general gender parity gap

East Asia, Pacific East Asia and the Pacific (of which Australia is included) has closed 69 percent of its overall gender gap - a marginal development from 2021, with 13 of 19 countries improving their gender gap score. At this pace, the region will need 168 years to close the gender gap completely.

However, within the region, there are important differences in countries’ progress. This year, Australia’s gender parity sits at 73.8 percent, sitting third highest behind New Zealand (84.1 percent), and the Philippines (78.3 percent). Globally, Australia is ranked 43 out of the 146 countries when it comes to achieving gender parity, but despite closing the gap by 4.5 percentage points in the last year, there’s still much work to be done.

Female labour force participation

According to the report, Australian women are among some of the best educated in the world. And yet, since 2006, Australia has dropped from 13th to 36th in the forum’s scorecard on female economic participation.

As the Australian economy faces critical labour and skills shortages that are adding to inflationary pressures, this data makes it clear that there’s a legion of well-educated female workers who are being underutilised.

Adding to this, is the disparity between the number of women in full-time roles compared with their male counterparts. Data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows that women constitute only 38.4 percent of all full-time employees in Australia, while they make up 68.5 percent of the part-time and casual workforce. This type of work often results in less professional stability and security, which was highlighted during the pandemic. Over this period, three out of five job losses in Australia were female, with the employment drop related to restrictions and lockdowns that significantly impacted sectors with high levels of women’s employment, including hospitality, retail trade, education and training. This overrepresentation of women in part-time and casual roles made them more vulnerable to job losses and less likely to be eligible for government support, such as the JobKeeper payment.

The gender pay gap

The disparity between men and women when it comes to pay equity in Australia is no secret, and though this gap has not increased in the last year, it also hasn’t improved. The Global Gender Gap Report shows Australia ranks 57th in the world for wage equality for similar work, with a substantial gap of 68 percent. Furthermore, the country sits at the 85th position for estimated earned income, with data showing a discrepancy of just over $23,000 between male and female wages.

The reasons for this gap are complex and varied. According to the Diversity Council Australia’s 2022 Shes Price(d)less report, the leading driver of the pay gap is gender discrimination at 36 percent - equivalent to $348 million annually. Though organisations may not be able to shift deeply-rooted societal gender discrimination and biases, on a micro-level employers can work towards eradicating them within their workplaces. By assessing those biases that may be inherent within areas such as hiring, culture, promotions and training, steps can be taken to educate managers and implement policies that minimise such behaviours and aid in closing the gap.

However, the pay gap is driven by more than just gender discrimination; the overrepresentation of women in the casual and part-time workforce, industrial segregation, and time taken out of the workforce for caregiving, also have a noteworthy impact on pay disparity.

Women in professional and technical roles

According to the report, Australia is ranked number one out of the 146 countries for female representation in the ‘professional and technical’ workforce, with a gap of 9.21 percentage points. Despite the number of women growing in these areas however, there is still significant underrepresentation of women within Australia’s professional and technical industries, otherwise known as ‘industrial segregation’.

In Australia industrial segregation is seen most heavily in sectors such as manufacturing, ICT and STEM. For example, the Global Gender Gap report found the manufacturing and construction workforce consists of only 23.23 percent females, compared to 76.77 percent of males. Similarly, only 16% of Australia’s STEM-skilled workforce are women.

Conversely, there is much greater female workforce participation in industries such as healthcare, social assistance and education, all of which typically have lower average salaries. According to the She’s Price(d)less Report, as of 2020 this industrial segregation accounted for 20 percent of Australia’s gender pay gap, an increase from nine percent in 2017.

It’s clear Australia has a highly gender-segregated labour market, with prevalent gender norms and stereotypes inferring there are some industries which are “for men” and others that are “for women”. Organisations within gender dominated industries should look at what they can do to encourage more diversity into their workforce, which can also aid in reducing labour-shortage issues.

Women in leadership

Globally, the share of women hired into leadership roles has seen a slight increase from 33.3 percent in 2016 to 36.9 percent in 2022. Australia is ranked 37th with regards to female representation in senior official and managerial roles, with a gender gap of 66 percent. And though the country has mirrored the global trend of increasing the number of women in leadership roles, this gap remains wide.

Bias and gender discrimination play a significant role here, with systemic beliefs creating workplace cultures where women are less likely to be sought out for promotions, or even hired into senior roles from the outset. For instance, a 2019 study by Workplace Gender Equality Agency on gender equitable recruitment and promotion found that women and men are held to different standards in recruitment processes: women are more likely to face tougher evaluation standards and have their achievements and qualifications more closely scrutinised. Furthermore, this study also found that women are more likely than men to be penalised for attempting to negotiate for higher pay.

It was found stereotypical beliefs, such as women being less committed to work, or needed to be protected from overwork, were very real barriers to being offered a promotion. Unfortunately, such biases can be hard to catch, as they are often unconscious. A good place for organisations to start is by conducting thorough audits of leadership and management teams, to determine where they sit with female representation. From here, it will be important to educate Hiring Managers and others involved in the recruitment and promotion processes to minimise the impacts of unconscious bias that often result in prejudicial decisions.

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