According to the United Nations SDG report, with just 6 years remaining, current progress falls far short of what is required to meet the SDGs. Without massive investment and scaled up action, the achievement of the SDGs — the blueprint for a more resilient and prosperous world and the roadmap out of current global crises — will remain elusive. The lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating conflicts, geopolitical tensions and growing climate chaos have severely hindered progress.

Under SDG5 gender equality, it reports a lag in progress. Harmful practices are decreasing but not at a rate keeping up with population growth: 1 in 5 girls still marry before 18; 230 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation; and violence against women persists, disproportionately affecting those with disabilities. Parity in women’s participation in public life remains elusive, and parity in management positions will require another 176 years. Women carry an unfair burden of unpaid domestic and care work, spending 2.5 times more hours a day on it than men.

The report details the urgent priorities and areas needed for stronger and more effective action to ensure the 2030 promise to end poverty, protect the planet and leave no one behind.  It showcases where tangible progress has been made and highlights where action must accelerate, particularly in critical areas undermining SDG progress - climate change, peace and security, and inequalities among and between countries.

The Global Gender Gap Index has annually benchmarked gender parity across 4 key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment since 2006, tracking the progress of numerous economies’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time.

This year, of the Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across 146 economies. It examines in detail a subset of 101 countries that have been included in every edition of the index since 2006, including Australia. Cross-country comparisons support the identification of the most effective policies to close gender gaps.

Search for Australia to find our rankings under a range of headings, and on p93 note the criteria where Australia is ranked 1^st globally.

Australia ranks 24^th overall [New Zealand ranks 4^th]

Economic Participation and Opportunity 42

Educational Attainment 84

Health and Survival 88

Political Empowerment 28

Most governments have yet to make gender a systematic feature and focus of their budgetary cycle. Since the 1984 launch of the first gender budget initiative in Australia, the uptake in efforts has extended to over 100 countries. The 2024 Global Gender Gap Index shows that, while no country has achieved full gender parity, 97% of the economies included in this edition have closed more than 60% of their gap, compared to 85% in 2006.

Australia Institute research has found women and low-income earners are being left behind by a superannuation tax concession system that disproportionately benefits high-income earners and men. 

This paper shows superannuation tax concessions help high income earners avoid tax, exacerbate income and gender inequality and come at a huge cost in foregone revenue.  Women retire with a super savings gap of nearly 25% compared with their male counterparts. Superannuation tax concessions are forecast to overtake the cost of the age pension in 2045-46. Removing the tax concession for both super contributions and earnings from the top 10% of earners would save more than $12 billion every year.

Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality outlines the Australian Government's vision for gender equality – an Australia where people are safe, treated with respect, have choices, and have access to resources and equal outcomes no matter their gender.

Launched in March, the Strategy sets out 6 guiding principles and a path to make progress towards this vision over the next 10 years, with a focus on 5 priority areas.

1.     gender-based violence

2.     unpaid and paid care

3.     economic equality and security

4.     health

5.     leadership, representation and decision-making.

It outlines the need for everyone to work together to shift the attitudes and stereotypes that drive gender inequality.  A good place to start is the chart at a glance.  The easiest way to review the strategy is here.

The Strategy is the centrepiece of the Government’s gender equality policy. It clearly sets out Government’s priorities and current actions for gender equality, and articulates future areas for effort.

BPW Australia is encouraging members to join our delegation to the BPWI triennial Congress in November.  Members who plan to attend need to register before 15 July to benefit from early-bird rates.  Note the Gala Dinner and Farewell Dinner are not included in the registration.

The program is available and links to accommodation and optional tours are provided.

Please advise President Gillian if you are planning to attend, and if you would like to run a workshop or panel session which fits the theme of the Congress "New Action through Cooperation". There will also be a Market Place where you can rent a table for your products for sale.

BPW was very active throughout 68^th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March in New York.

BPWI delivered 12 Parallel Sessions and members presented in many more non-BPW parallel sessions and side events.   At least 4 BPW members served with their government delegations as an integral part of the negotiations and discussions during the Commission on the Status of Women meetings. 

CSW sets a priority theme each year, and reviews progress on the theme from a previous year.  The Agreed Conclusions are drafted after much discussion and debate, and published online..

• 2024 Priority theme: Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective
• Review theme: Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

During CSW, BPW International holds a Leaders’ Summit for BPW members who travel to New York from all around the world. BPW Leaders' Summits are held in New York, every year during the weekend before the CSW and also at the beginning of every Regional Conference. This year it was a packed program with a strong representation from all BPW International Regions.  

BPW clubs discuss work-related challenges such as why men ae more likely to be promoted than women.  One reason is that high-potential women are over-mentored and under-sponsored relative to their male peers.

The Cultivate Sponsorship program was built on Australian research into what drives the differential outcomes in women’s and men’s career progression, and one of the key elements is informal networks of sponsorship. Cultivate is about providing the tools to change behaviour and workplace culture and putting knowledge into action.

BPW International is working with UN Women to establish the first network of business incubators and start-up centres with a gender-specific dimension. We will be the first international women's organisation with a global network of start-up centres for female entrepreneurs, each managed by our clubs.  BPW Australia clubs will be able to be involved.

BPW International has signed a GLOBAL partnership agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding MoU  with UN Women for the coming years. Global means that wherever we have clubs, we will be a partner and key player in working with UN Women on the ground. The content of the partnership agreement relates to WITH Women’s Entrepreneurship and Trade.

This partnership agreement focuses on the promotion of women's economic empowerment and is in line with Sustainable Development Goal SDG #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

In the first 6 months, a train-the-trainer program will be implemented to train women entrepreneurs, members of BPW, to become professional coaches (with certification). They will then work with the women on site and support them with the topics they need, be it accounting, marketing, language, or  dealing with banks and other investors.

Despite women’s increased participation in the labour market significantly contributing to past economic growth, persistent gender gaps across OECD labour markets hinder full realisation of the potential gains of women’s economic participation. A recent OECD paper analyses the economic implications of these gaps and evaluates the potential for future growth through greater gender equality in labour market outcomes

New World Bank data shows a massive, wider-than-expected global gender gap, with 98 economies enacting legislation mandating equal pay for women for work of equal value, but only 35 economies – fewer than one out of every five – adopting pay-transparency measures or enforcement mechanisms to address the pay gap.  

For the first time in the report’s 10-year history, the study examined the impact of childcare and safety policies on women’s participation in the labour market across 190 countries, revealing that less than a third of countries had quality standards for childcare that would guarantee children’s safety. The report found that tackling the childcare gap would immediately lead to a 1% increase in women’s participation in the labour force.

The report found that globally, women currently earn just 77 cents of each dollar earned by a man, and that closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20 per cent. According to a report by the World Economic Forum’s  Gender Gap Index released last June, it will take another 131 years for the world to reach gender parity.  

The 2024 theme of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women examines the pathways to greater economic inclusion for women and girls everywhere. The 2024 priority is accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with gender perspective

The 68^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women runs from 11 – 22 March 2024. We have several BPW Australia members attending CSW and also the BPW International Leadership Summit which runs in parallel to CSW each year in New York – refer BPW Australia LinkedIn.

It has never been more urgent to advance women’s economic empowerment. Investing in women benefits women and society as a whole. At the current rate of investments however, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030. The world needs an additional USD 360 billion per year for developing countries to address gender equality under the Sustainable Development Goals. And while increasing women’s share of assets and finance is vital for their economic empowerment, equally important is building institutions that promote public investment in social goods and sustainable development.

Five things guaranteed to accelerate women’s economic empowerment are:

1 Connecting women with financial resources can help them meet their basic needs and start or grow businesses.

2 Work that is productive and in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and dignity.

3 Respect for the undervalued and underpaid care work that women do that takes time away from opportunities for education, decent paid work, public life, rest and leisure.

4 Security and gender-responsive social protection systems that shield women from gender-based violence, conflict, food insecurity, and poverty.

5 Promotion of human rights and women's rights expressed in laws that underpin women’s economic empowerment.