Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke was already well aware of the business case for workplace gender equality as far back as the 1980s, noting that Australia could not afford to “neglect half its human resources” and linking gender equality to economic productivity and fairness.
He made the comments as landmark legislation was established on 3 September 1986, creating what is now known as the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
But really, the legislation and agency stemmed from the experiences of 25,000 women who initially helped shape it, and the gender pay gap transparency we have today has only survived successive governments thanks to the dogged determination and collaboration of women to do it
While much has changed in forty years, including a massive shift in women’s workforce participation rates, it’s striking to consider how many of the same issues discussed in the 1980s persist today. Such as who is doing the caring, who reaches leadership positions, and just how family friendly workplaces actually are.
It’s also incredible to think how far that legislation has gone, to the point where WGEA is today publishing key gender markers covering more than 10,000 employers and 5.8 million workers, including, as of the last couple of years, publishing the gender pay gaps of employers, and now requiring employers to meet key gender metrics.
And this has happened, and been sustained since the Act created what was first known as the Affirmative Action Agency, despite attempts by governments over the years to water down what WGEA can achieve, and even, at one point, to threaten its existence altogether.
Indeed, the gender pay transparency data nearly didn’t survive the Abbott Government, as Kristine Ziwica outlined in The Saturday Paper in 2024 — with Marie Coleman and a coalition of women catching wind that Liberal Senator Eric Abetz had drafted legislation planned to significantly reduce the scope of WGEA compliance, and these women then initating plans to ensure Abetz’s ambitions would fail. As Kristine said in her story, big changes don’t just happen; people like Marie and many others make them happen through their persistence and determination.
The extent of what WGEA can achieve has faced some criticism over the years, as well as calls to expand into better cultural diversity metrics (which would need to be legislated), it’s taken serious women-led advocacy to protect the gains made and evolve the agency to where it is now.
As WGEA CEO Christine Castley told Women’s Agenda, over these four decades Australia has moved from requiring employers to develop workplace policies to collecting, publishing, and using data to hold employers accountable for gender equality outcomes.
“From the beginning, workplace gender equality was both a social good and an economic imperative. Wasting the talent, skills and education of half the population was understood as a national inefficiency,” she said.
“Over successive decades, the focus expanded from action to evidence and measurement.”
In those early days, debates centred around myths that affirmative action from the agency would mean quotas or special treatment for women, with those early advocates pushing the argument that it was actually about removing barriers and improving opportunity.
The debates have continued and further evolved into WGEA, which covers data on the proportion of employers with a domestic violence policy or strategy, as well as those offering flexible work and paid parental leave for primary and secondary carers. The agency has also had a series of impressive leaders, including Castley, appointed this year, as well as Mary Wooldridge Libby Lyon and Helen Conway.
Australia now also boasts one of the world’s most comprehensive sources of workplace gender equality data, with the massive dataset enabling us to move beyond employers simply saying they have policies and good intentions—to actually measuring the outcomes of what’s been achieved.
On the 25,000 women who helped shape Australia’s first gender equality legislation, Catley said the scale of these stories and work may surprise Australians today.
“They spoke about limited employment opportunities. Lower rewards from work. Workplaces that did not recognise family responsibilities. And women concentrated in too narrow a range of occupations and industries,” she said.
“Over the 40 years, women have changed their relationship with work enormously. The question now is whether our workplaces have changed enough with them.
“Australia has invested enormously in the skills and education of its people. At the same time, we face skills shortages, demographic change and a persistent productivity challenge.
“There is little point investing in attracting and developing talent if our workplaces are not designed to keep it. We cannot afford to lose that investment or make less than full use of the talent we have.”
And there are also ideas on how transparency can go further.
Noting today’s anniversary, Professor Nareen Young from The Centre for Indigenous People and Work (CIPW) at the University of Technology Sydney said the decades of transparency success provide a powerful example of how to make progress for those still facing challenges in the labour market.
“Looking ahead, there is an opportunity to build on this strong foundation by deepening our understanding of how different groups of women experience work, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, ensuring that the benefits of progress are shared as broadly as possible,” she said.
“For example, our research shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women continue to experience the compounding impacts of both gender and Indigenous disadvantage.
“The WGEA has established itself as a world leader in workplace equality regulation. Let’s make sure the next 40 years are just as productive towards achieving workplace equality for all women,” she said./
Australia is currently celebrating historic levels of women’s participation in the workforce, but vigilance remains always necessary- given how quickly agencies like WGEA could be dismantled or watered down (just look at how much was ripped apart within the first months of the Trump presidency).
There is much more that can be done to support more inclusive and equitable workplace environments for First Nations women, for disabled women, and for women from CALD backgrounds, but 40 years—thanks to the collaborative and determined efforts of thousands of women —is certainly worth celebrating today.