As we have seen all too clearly over recent weeks,the opportunities Australian women are given to contribute to the public life of the nation are limited,and come with unacceptable risks. We now rank just 54th on political empowerment,well behind most developed nations;and at 99th,we are firmly in the bottom half of countries when it comes to women’s health and survival,which includes measures of violence and harassment.
How is it that women who are amongst the most educated in the world are falling so far behind on every other measure of success? What has gone wrong in Australia’s gender politics since the heady days of the 1980s,when we made such great strides towards equality between men and women?
Last year,just before the pandemic diverted our attention from almost every other issue in public life,Per Capita published a landmark report that showed that the causes of women’s economic,social and material disadvantage in Australia begin shortly after birth,and compound across the duration of their lives.
Gathering research from leading gender economists and sociologists,and the most recent publicly available data,Measure for Measure:Gender Equality in Australia demonstrated that Australian women begin to fall behind their male peers as soon as they leave school:they earn less,take on more unpaid domestic work,work fewer hours,interrupt their careers to care for others,work in underpaid feminised industries,are overlooked for promotions,encounter systemic ignorance of their health needs,are vastly under-represented in the media and on the sporting field,work twice as hard to achieve positions of leadership in business,struggle to break through the ranks of political power,experience harassment,abuse and violence both in the home and in the workplace,and ultimately retire into much greater levels of poverty than men in their old age.
The state of gender equality in Australia is,put simply,shameful. And it’s getting worse,at a rapid pace.
If we are to meaningfully address this national crisis,we need much more than a cabinet reshuffle and empathy courses for male leaders who make a mockery of the concept of merit in political life.
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The countries that are now out-performing Australia on the GGGI produce an annual review of national performance against gender equality targets. They have gender budget units in their treasury,as well as government architecture and funding to monitor performance and drive progress.
Ultimately,what is required to deliver gender equality in Australia is an unequivocal commitment to close the gender gap in every sphere of life,through a strong legislative framework and the reinstatement of our once world-leading machinery of government to track progress.
We need leaders who aren’t still trying to get it,but are committed to getting it done.
Because Australian women are among the smartest,hardest working and most educated in the world – we aren’t the problem,our society is.
Emma Dawson is executive director of progressive think tank Per Capita.