End the ‘normalisation’ of women’s economic inequality and unlock $128 billion

Placing a dollar value on the contributions and potential of women shouldn’t be necessary for spotlighting the persistent issues enabling economic inequality and driving women into poverty and homelessness.

But dollar signs can highlight opportunities. When it comes to supporting the full potential of women in Australia, crude value terms now appear necessary for dismantling the “normalisation” of women’s economic inequality, as well as for turning the conversation from being one about “costs” to one that is about “investment”.

This is part of the approach of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, chaired by Sam Mostyn AO and 13 members in total, which has released its report today making recommendations for unlocking women’s full and equal economic participation, and placing a $128 billion figure on just what Australia stands to gain.

The long-awaited report outlines some of the critical issues contributing to women’s economic inequality, how much such issues are costing Australia, as well as recommendations for addressing these issues.

Some of the data points outlined to highlight the personal and national cost of women’s economic inequality are staggering.

One that particularly stands out is the current trajectory of the average 25 year old woman today. If she has at least one child, and if current working patterns continue, this 25 year old woman can expect to earn $2 million less over her lifetime than the average 25 year old man who becomes a father.

On releasing the report this morning to Finance Minister and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher, Taskforce chair Sam Mostyn noted the exhaustion women feel at pushing to prove themselves as an essential part of the economy.

“Inequality for women is persistent,” she said during the press conference in Canberra. “We heard the same thing over and over; that women are exhausted … that women are tired of having to make this argument to be considered an essential part of this economy,” she said.

This exhaustion also stems from the idea that women’s economic inequality is “normalised”, as taskforce member Professor Rae Cooper AO said on the report’s release.

“Women’s economic inequality is so normalised that people assume it is a result of women’s choices, but Australia has the most highly educated female labour force in the world. Our failure to pay back their investments and realise their potential is costing our economy $128 billion,” she said.

The report’s data shows how women over sixty have become the largest cohort of the population most likely to end up in homelessness, despite the fact such women have likely done most of the caring — both paid and unpaid — during their lives.

There are seven comprehensive recommendations included in today’s report, covering further investment in early childhood education, extending paid parental leave to one full year of leave, better supporting older women to return to the workforce and addressing the minimum wage.

So what next? The Taskforce has slated a ten-year approach to the recommendations offered, clearly acknowledging current budget pressures and how difficult it is to achieve change in areas like the care economy, paid parental leave and tax support mechanisms.

But this ten-year timeframe does not mean a report like this can or should be sat on for months before being fully considered. Rather, we should expect an immediate response and plans for addressing some of the critical issues outlined — especially when it comes to recommendations that can be implemented quickly, like full and proper gender-based assessments of all measures outlined in the federal budget.

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said the whole report is before the government now and that she doesn’t want to single out any key one recommendation ahead of any other. She did concede that the budget is under a “fair bit of stress” and that they are looking at the most effective approaches.

However, she made it clear the government welcomes the report, and acknowledges the data highlighting the very real outcomes of economic inequality for women.

“It doesn’t make sense that women are fifty per cent of the country and not contribute in the way they would want to,” she said during the press conference this morning.

“We have the report. It is very much in line with the direction the government wants to head. So we are looking at them all.”

“The government will consider these recommendations alongside the analysis and policy directions of the Employment White Paper as we continue to develop a National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality that will be released in 2024.”

Unleashing the full potential of women will be a win for every Australian.

But it will only happen with deliberate and consistent effort that helps to dismantle just how normalised the inequality has become.

As Professor Rae Cooper says: “It begins with immediate actions for the Australian Government to provide leadership and accountability, invest in policies and programs that recognise the economic importance of care work, and ensure all Australian workplaces create safe, secure, flexible and equitable work opportunities.”

And as for addressing questions about the cost of the recommendations outlined, Mostyn urges us to return to the idea of seeing such dollars as an “investment”.

“The cost of not doing what we have recommended is far greater than what is required to build a gender equal economy,” Mostyn said.

The full report is available here.

The report outilnes a number of key data points to highlight the opportunities in women’s economic inequality. Below is a selection:

• Women do the majority of formal care work, which is generally low paying — for example, 92 per cent of early childhood education and care workers are women
• Women spend 30.2 hours a week on unpaid care and housework, compared to 21.8 hours per week for men.
• Women accounted for the sole parent in 80.4 per cent of lone-parent families in 2021
• Employed women continue to work substantially less hours than men
• Motherhood penalty sees women’s earnings drop by 55 per cent on average during first five years of parenting their first child, while earnings remain unaffected for men during the same period.
• Women work an average 32.5 hours per week compared to 39.3 hours for men
• Women make up 70.4 per cent of the part time workforce
• Just 0.7 per cent of private-sector funding went to startups of sole women-founded companies in the 2022 financial year
• 30 per cent of Australian men don’t think gender inequality exists
• “If current working patterns continue, the average 25-year-old woman today, who has at least one child, can expect to earn $2 million less over lifetime than the average 25-year-old man who becomes a father.”

Key recommendations

The full list of recommendations are provided here. In short, the recommendations include:

1. Leadership and accountability — is required from the Australian Government to drive economic equality outcomes and embed gender equity into decision-making, budgeting and policy design, implementation and evaluation mechanisms.
2. Investment — government must invest in policies and programs recognising the economic importance and value of care work in Australia and help families to better share caring responsibilities. Recommendation 2 includes abolishing the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test, legislating to establish and invest in universal, high quality and affordable early childhood education, legislating the payment of superannuation on all forms of paid parental leave and (under ‘long term actions’), extending the PPL scheme to 52 weeks at a replacement wage, and ensuring the scheme incentivises men accessing leave. The long term action also call for evaluating the status of care work and committing to the outcomes of relevant Fair Work Commission cases.
3. Workplaces — government should legislate, regulate and use its spending power to ensure all Australian workplaces create safe, secure, flexible and equitable work opportunities that support women and economic participation. This includes implementing all Respect@Work and Set the Standard report recommendations, boosting the availability of high quality flexible working, and addressing anti-discrimination and industrial legislation. The government should also ensure minimum and award wage setting processes takes into account what would be considered an appropriate “living wage” for employees. This recommendation also includes encouraging employers to set gender equality targets.
4. Lifelong skills building — government should provide lifelong, accessible, flexible and affordable education and skill building opportunities for women, including by removing existing disincentives and inequities that perpetuate industry and occupational segregation and sustained pay and wealth gaps.
5. Purchasing power — government should undertake long-term, targeted and deliberate investment programs to ensure women are leading and building the economy in equal measure to men. The immediate actions in Recommendation 5 include the government using its purchasing power to incentivise and support businesses committed to inclusive and equitable employment practices, and continue to invest in programs to increase the proportion of women in Parliament, government boards, community leadership roles.
6. Economic security — government must ensure women have financial security across their lives and are increasingly building lifetime wealth and economic equality.
7. Address bias — government should invest in programs to address community attitudes and bias that prevent women’s full economic participation across a lifetime.