Australian Federation of Business & Professional Women (BPW Australia) has teamed up with the economic Security4Women to survey women on their experiences and expectations on the future of work in Australia.

Part of the background to the results was the disruption to work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted on employment, hours worked, workplace participation, incomes and in many instances, the workplace. COVID-19 also had a significant impact on unpaid work, with unpaid care work a high-profile issue in the survey results.

There were many important work place themes and structural changes in the labour market unfolding before the emergence of COVID-19 and these are also incorporated into the findings and issues as to how the labour market will evolve in future.

The survey asked questions relating to the future of work and financial security. It was a solid response, but we note the following characteristics of the respondents:

• The geographic coverage was excellent, with responses from all States and Territories.
• 70 per cent of respondents had tertiary education.
• Just under 40 per cent were working parents.
• Less than 5 per cent of respondents were from women of ATSI or CALD backgrounds.
• Over 75 per cent were aged 45 years and older.
• 75 per cent of respondents were in paid work – either casual, part-time, full-time or are self -employed.

The key findings confirm some unfolding changes in the labour market both prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and since it hit the Australian economy.

A recent study by Professor Marian Baird and Associate Professor Myra Hamilton from the University of Sydney claims that in the last 10 years almost all paid parental leave under the role of ‘primary carer’ has been taken by women. The paper warns that the lack of improvement of the PPL scheme has only ingrained gender inequality, both in the workplace and at home.

ABS data shows that 95% of primary carer paid parental leave was taken by mothers, and 95% of secondary carer leave was taken by fathers, despite the benefits of giving more opportunities to fathers to take parental leave and women to participate in the paid workforce.

The  research paper, titled ‘Gender equality and paid parental leave in Australia: A decade of giant leaps or baby steps?’, lays out reasons why design features of the original scheme, such as prohibiting the equal sharing of leave between mothers and fathers, resulted in only women signing up for it.

Advocacy group Parents At Work says Australia's approach to paid parental leave "requires an urgent rethink from both government policymakers and employers". Australia’s PPL scheme is one of the least generous in the OECD, offering only 18 weeks compared to the  OECD average of 55 weeks and providing a flat rate rather than a replacement wage. PPL in Australia is granted to the "primary" caregiver, whereas in other OECD countries it can be shared.

CPA Australia provides the context of the financial impact of COVID-19 on women.

Financy: Gender and budget summary: Economist Bianca Hartge-Hazelman advises the government lacks a real plan with many of the measures announced aimed more at fixing women or women’s behaviours around work, rather than challenging systemic gender issues.

Women on Boards Claire Braund, Executive Director of Women on Boards, said it was good to see the Government has listened to women and responded with a tailored package to address specific issues such as domestic violence, economic security and health.  However, she cautioned that this was simply a start and a very small proportion of the overall budget which also needed to be scrutinised for its gender-based impact.

Women's Agenda publisher, Tarla Lambert, advises that what was supposed to be the Federal Budget that would change the game for women in Australia was only a tweaked and tinkered version; they ultimately missed a crucial chance to go big and send a powerful message to voters.  She concedes the government did spend big in some areas, including manufacturing, aged care and mental health services.

The Australia Institute: research economist Eliza Littleton is concerned that the woefully insufficient and temporary spending demonstrate that the Government is still treating issues affecting women as a political problem, rather than a systemic policy problem.

Centre for Future Work’s Briefing Paper: Budget Analysis 2021-22: Heroic Assumptions and Half Measures reports the budget’s spending on women consists of relatively small amounts of money divided across many different, often symbolic priorities. This modest new spending for women contrasts with permanent and much more expensive measures that will reinforce or widen gender inequality in Australia. Women’s concentration in part-time, insecure jobs explains why the gender pay gap (measured across all jobs) is 31%. And the continuing growth of insecure work could make that worse. In sum, this budget offers no real change to the policy settings that block women’s ability to fully work and earn.

They conclude the budget will not make an appreciable difference to women’s economic security or address widening inequality.

This month, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, in partnership with Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, released their Gender Equity Insights Report 2021.

The report shows that, although progress has been made in recent years to reduce the gender pay gap in Australia, it will still take more than 25 years to close it.

WGEA Director, Libby Lyons, said the report highlighted the importance of Australian businesses taking action to improve gender equality outcomes.  She expressed her concern that the findings of last year's WGEA dataset showed that progress on gender equality had stalled in Australian workplaces, and that the report reveals a worrying level of apathy and indifference among many Australian employers towards improving gender equality outcomes in their organisations.

The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 156 countries against four key dimensions – economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment – and then tracks each country’s progress over time. It’s first report was produced in 2006.

In the 2021 insight report, we find Australia has fallen behind in every major dimension measured by the Global Gender Gap Index, except for educational attainment for women, where Australia has maintained its number 1 ranking.

Since 2006, Australia has fallen from 12^th to 70^th in economic participation and opportunity, from 57^th to 99^th in health and survival, and from 32^nd to 54^th in political empowerment. With an overall ranking of 50 – down from 15 in 2006, Australia sits well behind the United States at 30, Canada at 24, the UK at 23, France at 16, South Africa at 18 and Mexico at 34.  Find Australia’s results detailed on pp103-104.

BPW members are featuring in presentations and panels during global CSW NGO Forum.  Check the schedule here.

BPW Western Australia member Carol Hanlon is hosting a session on Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs through the Sustainable Development Goals on 16 March 6.30pm-8.30pm WDST. The panel features women entrepreneurs and NGOs from around the world who have applied the SDGs to provide economic opportunities and make a difference in the lives of women and girls. Registration is free, contact Carol for details.

BPW International President Dr Amany Asfour and Vice President Dr Catherine Bosshart will speak about Economic empowerment through public procurement and financial inclusion on 22 March 8:30pm-10:00pm ACDT.

The face-to-face Congress planned for Florida in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19, but BPW International is holding a virtual General Assembly over 8 days between 21 and 30 March that all BPW members can connect with. Take this opportunity to witness the highest level of BPW in action, and to share this experience with your BPW sisters across the globe.

The General Assembly needs to accommodate timezones around the globe, so sessions will be a limited number of hours.  Times have not yet been announced, but for Australia sessions may be broadcast early in the morning or late into the night. 

This will be a truncated General Assembly to deal with core BPW International business – the budget, the election and urgent resolutions. BPW Australia, being an Affiliate Federation of BPW International, is entitled to 3 voting delegates and 3 alternate delegates at the General Assembly. 

Members can register as observers without speaking or voting privileges on the Registration page.  You need to set up a login to access the page, and the cost to register is €20.  Registration is open now and closes on 7 March. You will able to connect to the General Assembly sessions and watch the live broadcast. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will be run virtually this year, which means that all of us can access the NGO Forum that’s held in conjunction with CSW each year.

The Forum will run from 14 to 26 March 2021, but there are online preparatory workshops and training tutorials – some of these are accessible already.  The CSW platform allows BPW members internationally to register and link up with BPW members around the globe and with women from other NGOs.  You will be able to livestream the CSW sessions and join interactive workshops.  There is a parallel Youth Leaders platform that I encourage our Young BPWs to engage with.

First you need to register as an advocate which is quite easy.  There is a useful 5 minute tutorial for advocates video that shows how and what to access: https://ngocsw65forum.us2.pathable.com/

The Hon Dr Susan Ryan AO was the first Minister for Women in Australia, and possibly worldwide, and gave us the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984.  Before she died last year, Susan wrote a legacy paper documenting the rise of feminism in Australia and the social and economic revolution for women in the 1970s, building on a 2019 seminar. 

Susan was a Minister in a Labor government, and her focus is naturally on the Labor years of 1972-1975. However, she tells a compelling story that was lived for real by many of our longterm BPW members who will find this a stirring read full of the names of women we knew and policy platforms BPW still advocates for.

For those who weren’t there, this informative report provides means to develop an understanding of the heady days when women's voices were first heard and great strides were made for women's equality.  Although since then we’ve been battling to hold onto those gains and move forward, Susan’s story is positive and uplifting and I commend it to you all. 

In 2018, the EU, UN Women and the ILO joined forces to promote economic empowerment of women at work in G7 countries through the WE EMPOWER-G7 Programme based on the Women's Empowerment Principles. UN Women has collated evidence of emerging practice in the private sector, and of effective policymaking in the public sector into a booklet. It shares stories of innovative and successful women entrepreneurs, governments and companies working together to promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. This video is a resource for clubs to illustrate the value of the WEPs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how disparities and inequalities persist and grow in health and economic crises.  Working towards gender equality does not cease in the wake of a pandemic. To the contrary, we need to do more, to stand up, speak out and act, which is what WE EMPOWER did and will continue to do. WE EMPOWER helps women achieve financial independence, the key to true freedom and equality.

Collaborating across sectors is critical in creating change. WE EMPOWER’s partnerships with the private sector is a success story, reporting remarkable progress on gender inclusive policies and increasing commitment to the WEPs. WE EMPOWER’s message of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality is being reiterated around the world, and it will be important to keep it high on the international agenda.