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.”

In August, KPMG released a report calling for the government to improve gender equity with a wider use of  gender responsive budgeting.  This approach requires the gender impact of revenue-raising and spending decisions to be assessed.  The government committed to introducing gender responsive budgeting at the Jobs and Skills Summit.

KPMG believes that needs-based gender budgeting would have the greatest impact on achieving the government’s gender equity strategy. Needs based GRB identifies the policy areas where government action would optimally  reduce inequity. Combined with a gender lens on policy development – rather than trying to fix inequitable outcomes after a policy is implemented – this approach can help narrow the gender economic gap more efficiently and effectively.

Dr Leonora Risse from RMIT writes in The Conversation about her presentation to the Summit, arguing that gender gaps in our economy indicate we are not fully recognising women’s strengths and capabilities, and so not fully valuing their contributions to the economy and wider society.  The summit discussed the under-utilisation of women, as though women were merely functional machinery.  Gender responsive budgeting is a means to value rather than utilise women.

The Jobs and Skills Summit has delivered a raft of recommendations, and a number of them relate to BPW Australia’s resolutions and advocacy campaigns, including gender pay equity, affordable accessible childcare, pay transparency, flexible working, addressing older women's homelessness, super on paid parental leave, and removing barriers to women entering the workforce..

An Issues Paper was disseminated prior to the Summit and the Outcomes Document was released immediately after the Summit listing immediate actions and areas for further work.  Both are informative and accessible documents, worth reading.

The Summit discussed the cost of childcare which means many women with young children receive no financial benefit if they return to work full time. The ABC reports the federal government will provide higher childcare subsidies for more families from July next year, but advocacy groups and unions wanting those changes brought forward ramped up pressure ahead of the Summit.

BPW Australia (the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women) is marking Equal Pay Day 2022 by joining Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) call for business leaders to commit to taking immediate action.

WGEA is an Australian Government statutory agency created by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. The Agency is charged with promoting and improving gender equality in the Australian Workplaces.

This year, (Un) Equal Pay Day 2022 will be on 29^th August , marking the 60 additional days from end of previous financial year that women must work on average to earn the same annual pay as men. Thursday’s average weekly earnings data, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), shows that men are earning an average of $263.90 more than women a week.

“The new gender pay gap is 14.1%, or $263.90 per week , an increase over the last 6 months, which means women are making tougher decisions about maintaining their cost-of-living standards in this current inflationary climate. Latest monthly household spending indicator released by ABS for June shows an increase over 10%. Women are earning less than men but spending the same to maintain their households. This is not just unequal; it places stress on Australian households.” Jacqueline Graham, BPW Australia President said.

Mary Wooldridge, WGEA Director, is calling on employers to take immediate action to reduce the gender pay gap by conducting a pay gap audit. This will give them a clear picture of what’s driving their pay gaps and the opportunities for improvement, that will benefit their employees and their business over time. Data has shown in the past that provides overwhelming evidence that when employers analyse their data for pay gaps and take clear actions, their pay gap reduces.

“To drive change in the community we need leadership and action to achieve a more just, more equal and more inclusive society for a strong and thriving Australia,” Jacqueline said.

To find out more , go to https://www.wgea.gov.au/

Following 2021’s Starting Better report which provided a long-term vision for the best early childhood system for Australia, the Centre for Policy Development’s Starting Now report gives leaders a roadmap with concrete achievable steps over the next 12 months.

The paper recommends swift and coordinated action in three key areas:

Action to give parents the confidence to balance work and home by ensuring education and care is available and affordable. This includes accelerated changes to subsidy arrangements, measures that ensure public spending flows through to families, educators and teachers, and smarter spending coordination between governments.

Action on rewarding, secure early childhood careers so children and families can work with early childhood professionals they know and trust. This includes appropriate valuation of early educators’ work, making early childhood careers a priority at the national Jobs and Skills summit, a tripartite dialogue between unions, employers and government, training incentives for early childhood careers, and lifelong learning for early childhood professionals

A national mission for a universal early childhood system This includes a formal agreement between First Ministers to work together on a universal early childhood system, a reform task force to implement it, a special commissioner to lead a Productivity Commission review into a universal early childhood education and care, and long-term funding agreements.