What does the Australian election mean for women in the workplace?

Articles

3 Sept

Written By

The recent election is promising improvement on gender equality and the representation of women in the workplace. There have been a number of history-making wins for women who have set, as part of their priorities, gender equality and women's safety along with climate change and government integrity as top objectives. The “Teal Storm” is clearly supported by voters and is going to be a historical change in the government in Australia, mostly challenging the established liberal seats (including Kylea Tink in North Sydney, NSW; Dr. Sophie Scamps in Mackellar, NSW; Allegra Spender, in Wentworth in NSW; Monique Ryan in Kooyong, VIC; Zali Steggall in Warringah, NSW; Zoe Daniel in Goldstein, VIC; Kate Chaney in Curtin, WA).

Climate change and integrity in government are certainly important drivers in this election and these deserve their own review beyond the scope of this short article, where we want to reflect on what these elections results may mean for gender equality and women in the workplace.

The impact of COVID-19 has exacerbated gender inequality, with women in employment being 1.8 times more vulnerable to this crisis than men’s jobs. McKinsey research estimates that taking action towards gender equality in the workforce would increase global GDP by $13 trillion relative to a "do nothing scenario", as published in their report on countering the regressive effect of COVID-19[i].

The exiting government had already started some important work, with an increased representation of women in Scott Morrison's cabinet than before, billions budgeted for aged care and childcare as well as the initiation of an investigation to change parliament’s toxic and misogynist culture, recently illustrated by Brittany Higgins' rape allegation[ii], followed by the release of Sex Discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’[iii] report[iv].

Despite these efforts, as Australia currently stands, we know that:

This is not linked to a lower education level, as 48% of women have achieved a bachelor or above compared to 36% of similarly aged men.

While women make up almost half the paid workforce in Australia in 2022, they are underrepresented in high ranked, high paying jobs, as men are twice as likely as women to be in the top earnings quartile, earning $120,000 and above, while women are 50 per cent more likely than men to be in the bottom quartile, earning $60,000 and less[vii] [viii].

This is even more pronounced when looking at leadership positions, where the situation is improving with 47% of managerial promotions going to women but only 31% of women in directorship positions and 19% in CEO position and 22% of boards and governing bodies have no female directors[ix].

Interestingly, men dominate in leadership roles across all industries, including female-dominated industries[x].

In contrast, women are overrepresented in lower income profession such as Healthcare and Social Assistance, Education and Training[xi], which has been exacerbated even more during the pandemic (but is it a cause or a consequence? you can read this interesting analysis "Female-dominated professions pay less, but it’s a chicken-and-egg phenomenon" highlighting that when women join an industry, salary average decreases[xii]).

Women have less capacity to engage in paid work or invest in their career progression due a traditional assignment of unpaid work, or so called "household production" by economists, which is estimated to be $650 billion and includes domestic work and caring for children or elderly. This is referred to as the "gender time gap in unpaid care work", where for every hour Australian men commit to unpaid care work, Australian women commit 1h 48 minutes[xiii].

This greatly contributes to the overall gender gap, with time-out of the workforce and part-time positions (women represent 69% of part time employees[xiv]), reducing their exposure and opportunities for senior management and leadership role and in turn their lifetime earnings, including superannuation, where the gap sits at around 28-35%[xv] [xvi] [xvii] .

As reported by Australian Super in their " The Future of Poverty is Female[xviii]", It is important to not frame this gap as a women's choice because research shows that these "choices" are typically in the context of what’s best for the immediate or extended family, not necessarily women as individuals.

Violence against women with its many faces, including domestic violence, family violence, intimate partner violence, coercive control, workplace sexual harassment, street harassment and sexual assault, is estimated to cost $21 billion each year, with shocking figures such as " one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner[xix]", "Domestic violence is the leading cause of death, illness and disability for women aged under 45, and the main driver of homelessness in women[xx]" and "1 in 2 women (53%) has experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime[xxi]". Needless to mention that the parliament is not showcasing the best example.

It seems that, as Julie Bishop put it, “women did not see their concerns and interests reflected in a party led by Scott Morrison in coalition with Barnaby Joyce[xxii]” a thought illustrated by numbers collected by ANUPoll, as almost “2/3 of Australians report having little confidence in the Liberal party in regard to equity issues”[xxiii]. This thought was certainly reflected in their votes.

Besides, while women and especially professional women, represent over half of the voters, it seems that some politicians did not give them the attention they deserve and even undermined the Teal candidates and their objectives with comments such as "anti-Liberal groupies[xxiv]" used by Former Prime Minister John Howard to describe the Teals.

The future is yet to reveal if the new government under Albanese leadership will be able to deliver on gender equality but we can already appreciate that they are on track to be the first major party with 50% women's representation in the Australian Parliament, with 10 out the 23 positions going to women[xxv] and their ambition for Australia to be "one of the best countries in the world for women to live in[xxvi] ".

They have committed to[xxvii]:

· Act on the gender gap, by making the gender pay equity an objective in the Fair Work Act and to strengthen the Fair Work Commission’s powers to order pay increases for workers in low-paid, female-dominated industries. A statutory equal remuneration principle will guide expert panels to hear equal pay cases and promoting salary transparency where, large companies must report their gender pay gap publicly (as already the case in the UK) and prohibiting pay secrecy clauses, giving employees the right to disclose their pay, if they want to. (You can read more on how pay transparency can increases women’s probability of working in above-median-wage occupations[xxviii])

· Address a major barrier to women undertaking more paid work, by building up on the exiting government improvement and further reducing the disincentives for families with children in childcare (i.e when working more results in less net earnings after tax and subsidies calculations)[xxix] [xxx].

· Increase Women on Boards in ASX companies, with a 50% target and their intent to improve the recognition of Women’s Contributions, by appointing a dedicated position within the Office for Women responsible for encouraging and facilitating nominations of women.

· Fully implement all the 55 recommendations of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner ’Kate Jenkins "Respect@Work report[xxxi]", which should make it clear that employers have a positive duty to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation.

· Investing in women's safety, with $77 million on consent and respectful relationships education and $157 million for more community workers to support women in crisis and put ten days of domestic violence leave into the National Employment Standards.

Interestingly, the political landscape differs in New Zealand, with Jacinta Ardern continuing to poll as the preferred Prime Minister in the first country in the world where women were allowed to vote in 1893, and where representation of women in parliament reaches 48%. Jacinta Ardern sets strong standards, welcoming her baby in office and leading multiple initiatives toward the goal of gender equality in New Zealand, including the Equal Pay Amendment Bill passed in 2020, which made it easier for workers to raise pay equity claims with their employers[xxxii].

Angelique Greco

[i] ihttps://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/covid-19-and-gender-equality-countering-the-regressive-effects

[ii] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56078818

[iii] https://humanrights.gov.au/about/commissioners/sex-discrimination-commissioner-kate-jenkins

[iv] The Jenkins review has 28 recommendations to fix parliament's toxic culture – will our leaders listen? (theconversation.com)

[v] https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/australias-gender-pay-gap-statistics#gpg-by-occupation

[vi] https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/australias-gender-pay-gap-statistics#gpg-by-occupation

[vii] https://www.wgea.gov.au/newsroom/men-twice-as-likely-to-be-highly-paid-than-women

[viii] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-11/men-twice-as-likely-to-be-highly-paid-than-women-gender-pay-gap/100820782

[ix] https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/gender-equality-workplace-statistics-at-a-glance-2022

[x] https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/gender-segregation-in-australias-workforce

[xi] https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/australias-gender-pay-gap-statistics#gpg-by-occupation