The majority of front page articles published in Australia’s most popular news outlets continue to be written by men, a new study by the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia (WLIA) revealed this week. Men were also quoted more than twice as often as women – their opinions accounted for 78% of quoted sources, and their articles contained more words than the articles published by their female counterparts. The findings revealed that articles written by female journalists were less often featured on  premium pages, and were less frequently tagged as “exclusive”, indicating a critical gender disparity in visibility and prestige.

The research, led by La Trobe University Professor of Political Communication Andrea Carson, analysed more than 200,000 articles published in March this year to track the gender of bylines and expert sources across key news topics and major media outlets.  Professor Carson said that while there are equal numbers of male and female journalists in the country, women continued to disproportionately cover soft news stories, while men write the hard news topic areas. “Male journalists…receive ‘exclusive’ taglines more than twice as often as women, while women remain underrepresented in newspapers’ premium pages and the opinion and commentary sections,” she said. The study also revealed that women journalists are better at quoting women sources.

In an interview with BroadAgenda, Professor Carson said diversity in reporters and sources is a positive for journalism but also for democracy and for the media outlet’s economic survival. If we want news about our society to be accurate and holistic, we need to properly represent all groups in society. She reported that women are turning off news and are among the largest news avoiders according to the annual Digital News Report. One reason for this is because they do not see stories of interest to them or that reflect their experiences.

Among its several recommendations, the report encouraged media leaders to monitor newsroom gender equity and diversity policies that promote gender equity and equality, including initiatives to actively increase women’s presence in bylines, opinion pieces, “exclusive” taglines and as quoted experts.

Gender balance in the boardrooms of the nation’s listed companies is in clear sight, after the number of female directors effectively doubled in less than a decade.  New data from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) shows that only 30 more appointments of women are needed to hit the target of 40% representation, which is a big milestone towards gender balance in the boardrooms of Australia’s listed companies. t’s likely that, at the current rate of change, the historic target will be reached by the end of 2024, or in early 2025. 

The data reveals that 15 of the 34 women appointed to ASX 200 boards this year are on their first board appointment and another nine are on their second board. Supporting women early in their board careers and encouraging women towards board leadership will further lift the performance of Australian businesses, with benefits for all investors.

Equal Measures 2030 is a coalition of leaders from feminist networks, civil society and international development across the globe who connect data and evidence with advocacy and action on gender equality. They are committed to securing a just, peaceful and sustainable world, where all girls and women have equal power, voice, opportunity and access to their rights, in line with the SDGs. They believe rapid change is possible and are committed to holding decision-makers accountable.

Equal Measures 2030 collates and shares data to help advocates track progress or lack thereof on gender equality issues, and connects them to the right data, analysis and tools. They produce the SDG Gender Index which tracks gender-related trends for 139 countries and is regularly updated to support advocates in holding their governments accountable on issues such as violence against women, child marriage, health and education.

The 2024 SDG Gender Index is the most comprehensive global measure of gender equality. Developed by EM2030, it provides a snapshot of where the world stands on the vision of gender equality embedded in the 2030 Agenda. It is a multidimensional index, benchmarking gender equality across 139 countries (covering 96% of the world’s women and girls) and 56 issues across 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Gender equality is key to security, sustainability, prosperity and peace. But despite all the talk, no country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, write Australia’s Ambassador for Gender Equality Stephanie Copus Campbell and Executive Director of Equal Measures 2030, Alison Holder.

According to the Equal Measures 2030 SDG Gender Index, no country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. At current trends, we won’t achieve gender equality globally until the next century (the 2100s). A girl born today will have to wait until her 97th birthday – beyond the current expected lifespan – to live in a society without gender-based discrimination and oppression. A dismal scenario, where inequalities are cause and consequence of such interconnected crises as climate change, conflict, poverty, and hunger. 

One in two women who die during pregnancy or childbirth is in a conflict area, with maternal mortality more than 40 times higher in fragile contexts than it is in developing countries, according to International NGO CARE Australia. The research also shows that an estimated 35 million women gave birth in conflict zones in 2022, with the vast majority of them lacking medical care that meets basic standards of safety and quality.

These harrowing statistics highlight the reality for mothers around the world, who are disproportionately affected by conflict. Care is conducting an appeal which is supported by Adelaide Human Rights Activist and former refugee Khadija Gbla, who fled conflict in Sierra Leone to come to Australia when she was a child with her mother and sibling. Gbla is now a mother herself

Australia has 2.6 million workers classified as low-income earners, 60% of whom are women. Women In Super is calling for the LISTO to be increased and future proofed, ensuring that it is permanently tied to income tax rates.

The low income super tax offset, or LISTO, gives a payment of up to $500 to people who earn $37,000pa or less. It’s a government superannuation contribution designed to ensure that low-income earners do not suffer a tax penalty for making super contributions.

“The lowest paid people in the country continue to be unfairly shortchanged with the LISTO, paying a tax penalty that high income earners are not paying on their Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions. Low-income earners are the only group who pay more tax on their super than they do on their take home pay. And this is the group who can least afford to pay a tax penalty and they are mostly women,” says Women in Super CEO Jo Kowalczyk. 

From July 2024, super will be paid on the government paid parental leave scheme. Women is Super is calling for Superannuation Guarantee contributions to also be given to those receiving the carer’s payment, 74% of whom are women. 

Across the country, part-time nannies, housekeepers and domestic workers who work under 30 hours do not receive super contributions. This is one of the last remaining groups of people doing paid work under 30 hours who do not receive super contributions, and they are overwhelmingly women, and are at risk of retiring with no savings.

Women in Super is advocating for a fair, equitable and sustainable system whereby every woman retires with an adequate income to support a retirement with dignity.  They are urging the government to implement measures for all the women who will retire between now and when the gender super gap closes, recognise and compensate care work economically, and ensure it is shared between women and men, and implement the full suite of recommendations of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce Report (2023) to unleash the full capacity and contribution of women to the Australian economy.

The child support system is so fundamentally flawed it actually puts women at risk for financial abuse, even after leaving an abusive relationship, according to Single Mother Families Australia. 

The report, Opening the Black Box of Child Support, based on research by Terese Edwards, CEO of SMFA, and Kay Cook, Adreinne Byrt and Ashlea Coen, was launched in Canberra this month at Parliament House. It reflects the voices of 675 single mothers and reveals how child support payment systems facilitate financial abuse and coercion by paying partners.  

Withholding child support payments or minimising reported income impacts the financial wellbeing and safety of single mother families.  Around 500,000 Australian children are shortchanged by $17B.  More than 28% of payers are failing to lodge tax returns, in a bid to lower their child support payments.  This financial abuse compounds the domestic violence that these single mothers have frequently sought to escape. The system is not working for single mothers or their children.

BPW Darwin member Mary Linnell spoke at the launch, and it was attended by BPWA President Gillian Lewis and Director of Policy Ronnie Gurung. 

BCEC’s Gender Equity Insights 2024 focuses on the changing nature of part-time work in Australia. These annual Equity Insight Reports, produced with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, can be accessed on the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre website.  They call for action to prioritise gender equity across all job levels, not just management.

The report identifies an important shift in how employees choose to engage in the workforce, as they increasingly seek flexibility and opportunities to tailor work schedules and locations to their needs, and calls on employers to develop a plan for action that normalises both flexible and part-time work, without career penalties.

The research found that part-time roles dropped by 3.2% in the past 2 years, and the subsequent rise in flexible full-time and hybrid roles has enabled more employee choice. Full-time roles that incorporate flexible work arrangements, such as remote and hybrid work options, are becoming more prevalent in Australian workplaces, having risen to 42.5% over this same period. The report also highlights an increase in full time working managers being able to access flexible start and end times, now at 65% of full-time managers.

Women aged 35 to 55 have led the charge for the increase in those working full time, with the majority in this cohort choosing to do so as a personal preference rather than a financial necessity.  Angela Priestly in Women's Agenda questions whether some women are accessing the flexibility they need via full-time positions and earning more in the process.

WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge calls on employers to further “challenge certain patterns of work and re-design and re-imagine work as part time and flexible in a way that delivers maximum benefit to their employees and the productivity and profitability of their organisation.”  She also notes that employers who conduct a gender pay gap analysis, set targets and implement formal policies or strategies for flexible work have higher rates of women managers working part time. WGEA stated the findings present employers with a clear challenge to actively consider what more they can do to support part-time employees as well as those who need to, or choose to, work flexibly.

The Productivity Commission Inquiry report examines the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, including: centre-based day care; preschools; family day care; outside school hours care; and in home care.

This report outlines what a universal ECEC system would look like, and the significant reforms necessary to achieve it. These reforms tackle issues that affect ECEC availability, inclusion, affordability, quality and equity. The report's recommendations aim to remove barriers to ECEC access such as the activity test, and support better outcomes for children and families including fully subsidised childcare for families earning under A$80,000 from 2026 and 3 days a week of high-quality early education and care for all families with children under 5.

Dr Melissa Tham from the Mitchell Institute summarises the report and offers an analysis in The Conversation.

Advocacy group The Parenthood has released a report spotlighting the negative impacts of inaccessible early learning on regional, rural and remote communities.  The report shares the stories of 160 parents, carers, educators and community leaders who are bearing the brunt of early learning and care shortages in those communities.

The Parenthood found 86% of families from regional, rural and remote communities struggling to access early learning services face financial stress. They report the Jobs and Skills early childhood Census revealed it would take around 21,000 early childhood education workers to meet the current demand in the industry, and the ramifications of this nation-wide shortage hits even harder and regional, rural and remote communities.

National cabinet has agreed to a $4.7 billion plan to ramp up frontline supports for people escaping family violence. The plan builds on almost $1 billion committed in the federal budget to the Leaving Violence program, which offers victim-survivors support packages of up to $5,000 to help leave a dangerous relationship. Chair of Community Legal Centres Australia Arlia Fleming said services could not afford to wait until July next year when the funding will kick in.

The statement also included a promise to establish national standards for men’s behaviour change, and an audit of key Commonwealth government systems to identify areas where they are being weaponised by perpetrators. First Ministers agreed to:

Develop new national best practice family and domestic violence risk assessment principles and a model best practice risk assessment framework.

Support enhancements to the National Criminal Intelligence System, which enables information sharing across jurisdictions, to provide a ‘warning flag’ that will assist police responding to high-risk perpetrators.

Extend and increase nationally-consistent, two-way information sharing between the family law courts and state and territory courts, child protection, policing and firearms agencies.

Strengthen system responses to high-risk perpetrators to prevent homicides, by trialling new focussed deterrence models and Domestic Violence Threat Assessment Centres. These centres will be able to use intelligence, monitor individuals and intervene with those at high risk of carrying out homicide.

BPW Australia Immediate Past President Jacqueline Graham and BPW Northern Territory State Representative Mary Linnel have been published in the latest edition of Trading Places, a yearly publication advocating for women in skilled trades.

With support and guidance from Tradeswomen Australia, Supporting and Linking Tradeswomen Australia (SALT), the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), and The Lady Tradies, Trading Places provides essential, myth-busting information that will aid the advancement of women in trades, and inspire people and businesses to embrace gender diversity.

You will find Jacqueline’s article on pp 20-21 and Mary’s on pp 58-60.