Heather Ridout AO has been appointed as Australia’s Consul-General in New York, the first woman to be appointed to this role. A former Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group, Ms Ridout brings four decades of experience to the role. She is currently Director of Sims Ltd and Director of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Limited.

Other newly appointed women include Sophie Davies as Australia’s Ambassador to Brazil, Sonya Koppe as Australia’s High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Minoli Perera as Australia’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, and Phoebe Smith as Australia’s High Commissioner to the Cook Islands.

Senator Penny Wong also announced the appointment of Stephanie Copus-Campbell as Australia’s next Ambassador for Gender Equality.  She takes over from the outgoing Ambassador for Women and Girls, Christine Clarke CSC and will deepen Australia’s international engagement on gender equality by advocating the importance of women’s human rights, ending gender-based violence, women’s economic empowerment, and the leadership of women and girls. 

Science & Technology Australia established the Superstars of STEM program in 2017.  It is designed to propel Australian women of STEM into the spotlight, and has so far promoted 150 women leaders of STEM. Meet the 2022 Superstars of STEM.

Science & Technology Australia offers a range of workshops, programs, and events which empower the members and staff of their member organisations.

The Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation has released its first Australian Women’s Health and Wellbeing Scorecard: Towards equity for women, which will be produced annually. The MCHRI annual scorecard captures women’s health and wellbeing outcomes in Australia, documenting progress over time.

The Scorecard shows that Australian women disproportionately have lower income, less engagement in the labour force and poorer health than men.  While economic indicators are improving for women, data shows that the gender gap has remained for all indicators (income, superannuation, labour force engagement and health) except unemployment.  At these rates it will take 70 years to reach equality on full time employment, and more than 200 years to reach equity on income.

These gender inequities are negatively affecting the economy as well. The report shows that women’s labour force absence cost $72 billion in lost GDP annually.

BPW clubs worldwide can access personal and professional development resources on the BPW International website. This BPW International webinar is presented by the Standing Committee for Development, Training and Employment.  It is introduced and facilitated by Standing Committee Chair Francesca Burack, with contributions from Standing Committee members including our own Director of Policy and BPWA Vice President Angela Tomazos.

Want to get more done? Have an idea that you would like to implement, but don't have enough resources or time? Need to get more people or another organisation involved? Watch the video to understand how Collaboration will help you accomplish a common goal, extend your network, increase your skills and impact our members and women around the world.

The recent series of international Leaders’ Summits produced 3 comprehensive statements with observations, data, declarations and commitments.  It’s always interesting to perform a gender analysis on these documents to assess how influential the international women's policy machinery has been in impacting the focus of the leaders’ debates, decisions and conclusions.  It’s telling how far you have to read before women or gender is mentioned, given we are more than 50% of the population.

The Declaration of the big international G20 Summit in Bali first mentions women at paragraph 46 out of 52 – a single paragraph.  Two others mention gender.

The Declaration of the regional Asia Pacific APEC meeting in Bangkok mentions women at paragraph 19 out of 23 – again, a single paragraph.

Women have much more of a focus in the Statement of the more local ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Cambodia, with paragraphs 19, 20 and 83 out of 106 specific to women and additional mentions in several other paragraphs.

The G20 and APEC statements suggest women’s organisations need to step our international advocacy but the ASEAN focus is reassuring.  This is where BPW Australia can have the most impact. 

The Fair Work Commission’s decision to offer a 15% interim wage increase – while continuing to consider a full 25% increase – is informed by the findings of 2018 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The FWC recognised that work in feminised industries – including care work – has been historically undervalued and that the reason for that undervaluation is likely to be gender-based.  It recommended a 25% wage increase for aged care workers which is backed by unions.

The Royal Commission reported that a wages gap exists between aged care workers and workers performing equivalent functions in the acute health sector. Successive governments have made several failed attempts to address that gap by providing additional funds to providers in the hope that they would be passed on to aged care workers by way of increased wages. They were not.

BPW Australia has passed resolutions and advocated strongly for work and family balance to support women who combine paid work with caring responsibilities for children or adult family members.

The Senate has established a Select Committee on Work and Care which released an interim report on 18 October.  It is examining the ways in which the combination of work and care responsibilities is impacting on the lives and wellbeing of Australians. The report includes a range of recommendations on gathering data about how workers manage their caring responsibilities, analysing wage structures in the care economy, extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks, and increasing funding to First Nations community-controlled Early Childhood Education and Care.  It also recommends amendments to the Fair Work Act to require fairness in rostering staff, allow better access to flexible work options and legislate the right to disconnect from work when working from home.

Read the analysis in The Conversation:  https://indaily.com.au/opinion/2022/10/24/switching-off-for-work-life-balance/ 

Human rights lawyer and activist Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa created the Gender Legislative Index as a tool she hopes will help push governments and parliaments to enact better laws for women. It ranks and scores legislation against global standards for women’s rights, and seeks to get the law right in the first place, rather than invest in poor or average laws that later need amending.

Australia’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Act 2012 meets international standards, but our parental leave legislation falls short.

Dr Vijeyarasa is now researching whether, with just 30 female prime ministers and presidents globally, women presidents and prime ministers change their countries and how they might ultimately change the world.

The United Nations’ theme for 2022 is Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow. So how are we tracking so far? UN Women has released their global Progress Report on the Sustainable Development Goals. For a snapshot of Australia and New Zealand’s progress on SDG5, check pp 22-27 of the report – last column.

The latest SDG5 data show that the world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. Women’s representation in positions of power and decision-making remains below parity. Less than 50% of the data required to track progress on SDG5 are currently available, rendering women and girls effectively invisible.

COVID and the backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are further diminishing the outlook for gender equality. Violence against women remains high; global health, climate, and humanitarian crises have increased risks of violence, especially for the most vulnerable women and girls; and women feel more unsafe than they did before the pandemic.

Nearly halfway to the 2030 endpoint for the SDGs, the time to act and invest in women and girls is now.

31 August 2022

The Andrews Labor Government has released new educational resources to help small and medium-sized businesses better understand how they can act to close the gender pay gap.

Minister for Industrial Relations Tim Pallas today launched a range of materials developed by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) with funding from the Government to support businesses in their understanding of equal pay.

The three videos with interactive features and three short e-learning modules are tailored to the characteristics and needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

Small and medium-sized businesses make up a significant proportion of the Victorian workforce and economy. Covering two in three employed Victorians, these businesses have the power to effect enormous change when it comes to achieving equal pay.

The Government and VEOHRC have previously released the “Equal pay matters: Achieving gender pay equality in small-to-medium enterprises” report. The report noted that the drivers of pay inequality at smaller organisations include limited understanding about the concept of equal pay and how it applies to them.

The resources were co-designed with businesses and industry experts and will be distributed widely.

Recent data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows the national gender pay gap continues to widen, now sitting at 14.1 per cent, which is an increase of 0.3 percentage points over the past six months. This means men on average earn $263.90 a week more than women.

As part of the Victorian Budget 2022-23 the Government invested $1 million to promote gender pay equity workplace initiatives and the functions of the Equal Workplaces Advisory Council.

To access the videos and e-learning modules, go to humanrights.vic.gov.au.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Industrial Relations Tim Pallas

“On average, women must work 60 days more to earn the same salary as a man – which is disgraceful.”

“By supporting small and medium-sized businesses with information and resources, it will help to reduce the gender pay gap and boost fairness across the economy.”

“It’s a win for everyone – research shows that equitable workplaces are more productive, have less staff turnover and higher morale and are more profitable.”

Quotes attributable to Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Ro Allen

“As we emerge out of the pandemic, this is an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to reset and update business practices.”

“Equal pay is a human right but it’s also good for business and our resources will help businesses take realistic and achievable steps to advance equal pay in their workplaces.”