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Gender equality in Australia – what are the issues?

By Rose Espinola - posted Friday, 1 July 2011


What are the main issues effecting women in Australia? What are we talking about when we refer to discrepancies between men and women in our country? And for what reasons do I need to defend the relevance of feminism in our country?

Australia is a nation that has a long history of struggle in search of finding a balance of gender equality. As one of the first nations to offer suffrage to women in 1901, to the enactment of the Sex discrimination Act in 1984, to recent accomplishments such as the 2010 Paid Parental Leave Act, we can say that we have come a long way. Yet still much needs to be done.

However, time and time again I find myself defending the mere existence of such inequalities. I have often been questioned if there is even a need for concerted feminist movements in Australia. It is a refection of how many of us are unaware of the modern issues affecting women in Australia today.

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Increasing awareness of issues for women in Australia is crucial for our advancement in gender equality. The latest HEROC publication, Gender Equality Gender Equality Blueprint 2010, identifies that while it appears that women have equal opportunities as men in Australian society today, great inequalities continue to prevail, particularly when the overall statistics are examined over a person's lifetime.

It is important to become familiar with the larger issues, especially for those who tend to be bound to the logic that we must have achieved equality, if on a micro scale, there appears to be no inequalities between men and women in society.

In a world that is set to hit 7 billion people in 2011, and even in our country of 22.5 million, it is not enough to assume that the mere few thousand contacts you know (more or less), is broadly demonstrative of the on the ground situation in that country. It is exceedingly important to recognise the issues that are affecting women in Australian society; as only genuine understanding will bring effective change.

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, examines gender imbalance according to economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.

It is concerning to find that, Australia ranks 23rd in the World Gender Gap report of 134 countries. Australia is listed three places down since the last report and six places down from the 2007 rank.

It is in our best interests to ensure that we continually make progress towards gender equality. According to many sources, including the Global Gender Gap Report, countries that utilise both men and women in the workplace have a much higher success rate in development. A distinct link has been made between the participation of women in the workplace and development.

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While we can be proud that Australia has completely closed the gender gap in the area of education between men and women, when taking into account the numbers of political empowerment and the wage differences between men and women, I, like many other Australians, still believe we can do better.

There are many areas of inequality that we can strive to overcome, some of which I will outline here.

Inequality Number 1 – More Women in lower skilled part time work:

The majority of women in the workplace in Australia occupy lower paying and lower skilled positions; they are more likely to be working in precarious employment; and take on part time work rather than full time work.

In Australia, women are more likely to occupy lower status jobs than men and be in the workplace for a shorter period of time. This means that they are more vulnerable to poverty, end up getting less superannuation and are worse off than their male counterparts on retirement.

Inequality Number 2 – Women are promoted less and earn less:

Women are less likely than men to be promoted and to attain management and leadership positions. Women are only 2% of chairs of ASX200 companies and hold only 8.3% board of directorships in Australia.

Furthermore, the EOWWA (Equal Opportunity Women in the Workplace Agency) found in a 2008 report that differences in salaries between men and women CEOs are up to 50 percent, leaving no doubt about the gender pay gap, particularly within the top ASX companies.

In addition, the gender gap in Australia according to the World Economic Forum report 2011, is 0.72, which means that men are generally earning almost thirty percent more than women in Australia.

The Gender gap in earnings is particularly concerning considering that women are approximately 85 percent of single-parent families, yet they are still overall earning significantly less than men. The worst case in Australia is in the insurance and finance industry, where women are only making 40% of what their male colleagues are.

Inequality Number 3 – Women are under-represented in Australian Government:

Women are grossly under-represented in our government. In the World Gender Report, in terms of gender Gap for political empowerment, Australia occupies position 39 out of 134, with a subindex score of what equates to 20% equality or a gap of 80% in favour of men in political participation.

Not only are we under represented in government, but also women in Government in Australia are subject to negative attitudes by their male colleagues. An example of such behaviour was last month when our Finance Minister, Penny Wong, was meowed at during question time in Parliament. This is just one indicator of some remaining discriminative perceptions of women in our government.

Inequality Number 4 – Women undertake significantly more of the household work and childrearing than men:

The division of household work is largely unfair to women in Australia. In a study by ABS on how Australians spend their time, it was found that women in Australia spend at least three times as much time looking after children then men. The same study found that women are undertaking almost twice as much of the housework in families with children, than men.

Australia is a society that demands that both spouses work, as a social view and more often than not, as an economic requirement for families. As a result, women in Australia are struggling between their perceived 'traditional' roles as housewives and mothers, as they take on a larger quantity of household work than men, alongside their workplace hours.

As a result of such inequalities, many women in Australia today are faced with the unfortunate common dilemma of harbouring feelings of guilt and other stressors in connection with managing their time at work and with their partners and children. It is an unfair result of continued inequalities.

Inequality Number 5 – Women are depicted as the weaker of the sexes and often sexualised:

The depiction of women in the media continues to present women as the weaker of the sexes and oftentimes commodifies women, likening them to sexual objects.

The sexualisation of women in our society is concerning to say the least, including crass anti-women jokes and posters of half naked women in vulnerable poses. Just this month, fashion giant Supre released advertisements for leggings targeted at teenagers with a girl sexually posed without a shirt on.

The commercialization of women and the ideology that 'sex sells' consistently sees us bombarded with images that condemn women to be merely sex objects and paint women in demeaning positions.

The risk of the sexualisation of women starts at a very early age, with women being taught very early on how important beauty is. The effect of this, is that it very subtly reproduces attitudes within our society where women are in sexualised and domesticated positions.

While there is much to be concerned about in the area of gender equality in Australia today, we are still capable of striving to achieve equality no matter how great or small the inequality is.

We must raise the standard and shouldn't need an impetus such as the benefits associated with equality or economic development, in order to stimulate action for women's issues. We can all aspire, on a micro or macro level, to reduce gender inequalities in our daily lives for the good of the society.

We can do this by familiarising ourselves more with the kinds of inequalities that are affecting women in our society on a whole, as examined by HEROC and the World Gender Report. By understanding exactly where the inequalities lie, and by increasing awareness, we can approach these problems for change more effectively.

In doing so, we can work to decrease gender inequality through encouraging better attitudes towards women, that is, discouraging the stereotyping of women as managers of the private sphere in household work and childrearing.

Instead, we can work towards reproducing a culture that promotes equality in all spheres of everyday life. As Tony Smith pointed out in the OLO article on 28 June: The natural roles of child rearing does not account for the confinement of women to the role of housework for a lifetime.

By increasing awareness of the very issues that are affecting gender equality and encouraging support of each other to counteract this imbalance, we will be better able to choose the way we balance our lives in an equal participation experience.

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About the Author

Rose Espinola is a freelance writer who has spent significant periods in the Middle East, the U.S. and Australia.

Rose has a working background in education, immigration, social justice and non-profit. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations at Griffith University in Queensland, and her Masters of International Law at the University of Sydney. Rose’s focus areas are Culture, Gender, Citizenship, Politics and Social Justice. She currently lives in Colorado, USA.

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