Professor Michelle Ryan from the University of Exeter questions whether we should focus on empowering women to lean in since this implies that inequality in workplaces is due to women’s personal preferences.  She suggests that, to address persistent gender inequality, we need to move away from trying to fix women and instead create workplaces where women feel they belong, which promote and reward women and are open to change.

Australia doesn’t have just one minimum wage – it has a different minimum wage for each award set by the Fair Work Commission. So why does the Commission set lower minimum wages for jobs more commonly held by women?

Dr Barbara Broadway and Professor Roger Wilkins of the University of Melbourne suggest minimum wages could do more to close the gender wage gap if the Commission’s decisions were neutral with respect to the gender composition of jobs. Drawing on HILDA Survey data from 2008 to 2014, their research found that award-reliant women earn approximately 10% less per hour than award-reliant men. Professor Barbara Pocock, founder Director of the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia, advised BPW that historically the pay gap narrowed most significantly whenever the minimum wage was lifted.

BPW Australia conducts an annual Equal Pay Day campaign; in 2018 this will include advocating for gender neutrality in minimum wage decisions.

From the women's march in January that went global, to the surge of women leaders in Africa and Latin American countries ending child marriage, to the still current Me Too campaign that is forcing a rethink about acceptable behaviours, UN Women summarises an interesting year.  Let's look forward to more progress in 2018.

Rocío Lorenzo and her team surveyed 171 companies to find out whether diverse companies are really more innovative -- and the answer was a clear yes. In this TED talk, Lorenzo dives into the data and explains how companies can start producing fresher, more creative ideas by treating diversity as a competitive advantage.

In September 2017 the University of Canberra launched the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation.  It is a bold new gender equality initiative backed by world class research expertise that gathers evidence, documents best practice and runs leadership programs and events to strengthen the role of women in public administration and governance.  Why?  Because waiting for equality is not an option.

The Foundation’s report hub offers a searchable resource library of evidence to support research, advocacy and policy development. Subscribe to Broad Agenda to stay informed.

The BPW International website runs a blog with career and business advice for women.  Check it out at www.bpw-international.org/blog.  There are many pages of relevant and useful advice that is searchable so you can easily find the information you seek. 

What are the implications of Australia’s taxation and social security systems for women’s workforce participation and our economic security in retirement? How does this tax-transfer system interact with labour, housing and financial markets, affect our work, saving and investment decisions and shape our family, social and working lives and economic wellbeing over our life course?

This e-book on Tax, Social Policy and Gender: Rethinking Equality and Efficiency arose from discussions during a workshop hosted by the ANU’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute that applied a gender lens to our tax and transfer system. With a foreword by Marie Coleman of the National Foundation of Australian Women, and numerous expert chapter authors, this is a good read and an excellent resource.

The scorecard presents an informative snapshot of the key findings from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s 2016-17 gender equality data, and trends over a 4 year period.

The WGEA notes a big jump in employer action on gender equality – making managers accountable for gender equality outcomes, promoting women into manager roles and encouraging flexible work arrangements – but the gender pay gap persists across every occupational category with men on average earning $26k a year more than women.

There has been no improvement in the proportion of women on company boards and management roles continue to be heavily dominated by men with women holding just 16.5% of CEO roles and 29.7% of key management personnel roles.

Sexual harassment has suddenly risen to the top of the agenda in 2017. The messages of Australia’s policy launched in 2014 remain highly relevant today.  The “Know Where the Line Is” campaign, a joint initiative by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australian Council of Trade Unions and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was launched by a powerful trio of women: Elizabeth Broderick who was Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Ged Kearney who was the President of the ACTU and Kate Carnell who was the CEO of ACCI.  

Plan International Australia conducted a national survey of girls aged 10 to 17-years old to find out to what they aspire and what prevents them from following their dreams.  They called the report The Dream Gap because girls modify and curtail their aspirations when they experience gender discrimination. Girls want to succeed but they face barriers that grow more profound as they enter adulthood. Plan reports 98% of girls say they do not receive equal treatment to boys.   Their main dream?  Gender equality.