Today the Prime Minister Tony Abbott has received an important letter and a report from the COAG Reform Council called Tracking equity: comparing outcomes for women and girls across Australia.
In 2012, COAG and the Select Council on Women’s Issues asked the COAG Reform Council to report on the equality of outcomes for women and men in priority reform areas. This report, the first on outcomes by gender, looks at the experience of Australian women and girls in the context of the national reform agenda. The findings confirm that Australian women are disadvantaged and that inequity remains a real issue.
In a letter addressed to Mr Abbott the COAG Reform Council chair, and former Victorian premier, John Brumby highlighted the areas in which Australian females are not benefiting from national reforms. Brumby wrote:
“We have found that girls and young women have achieved equity or surpassed boys and young men in school literacy, as well as Year 12 and higher qualification attainment. Despite these achievements, gaps remain in workforce participation and representation in leadership roles. This has economic implications across the lifespan with lower overall pay and smaller superannuation savings for women on retirement. Women from low socio-economic backgrounds, women with disability, and female carers are disproportionately affected by these economic disadvantages.”
In accordance with the agreed objective, as set out in COAG’s reform agenda, that all Australians should enjoy opportunities for economic and social participation, good health and a safe and secure living environment Brumby says there is work to be done.
“Australian governments have agreed that more should be done to remove the barriers to economic and social participation for all Australians,” Brumby wrote. “The council hopes that the findings in this report will assist governments to achieve this goal for girls and women.”
Key findings
Girls do well at school but are less likely than boys to be fully engaged in study and/or work when they leave school
Girls outperform boys in reading and writing in both primary and secondary school, although boys continue to outperform girls in numeracy in every State and Territory. Young women (20–24 year olds) are more likely to complete Year 12 or equivalent. In 2012, 87.8% of young women had completed Year 12 compared with 84.1% of young men.
Women are also catching up to men in overall rates of higher qualification attainment — with a higher proportion of women under 30 than men under 30 now attaining educational qualifications at or above Certificate III level (for example 64.8% of women aged 25–29 compared with 62.7% of men).
However, although girls generally outperform boys at school, they are less likely overall to transition from school to full engagement in work, education or a combination of the two. In 2012, 73.5% of young women (aged 18–24) compared to 79.3% of young men were fully engaged in employment, education or training. Having narrowed slowly over time up to 2002, this gap has remained relatively unchanged for the past ten years.
Women from lower socio-economic areas are doubly disadvantaged. In 2011, 53.6% of young women living in the most disadvantaged areas were fully engaged in work or study after leaving school. In the least disadvantaged areas the proportion was 82.1%— 28.5 percentage points higher. The difference between young men from the most and least disadvantaged backgrounds was 19 percentage points.
Financial disadvantage starts with lower salaries and continues to retirement
Financial disadvantages start as soon as women enter the workforce. Graduate starting salaries are overall significantly lower for women than men — and in six of 23 specific fields. In 2013, women’s average weekly earnings were 17.5% lower than men’s (based on ordinary-time earnings).
Women are less likely to be in higher-level or leadership roles. Less than 3% of ASX 500 companies are chaired by women, and 28.9% of parliamentarians are women. Women hold 39.2% of senior executive roles in the Australian Public Service despite making up 57.3% of the APS workforce. In State and Territory governments, between 27.6% and 40.0% of senior executives are women.
Access to child care significantly impacts on women’s employment. In 2011 a quarter of families with children under 12 did not access child-care due to the costs. Lower pay and workforce participation means women are retiring with an average of 36% less superannuation than men.
Women lead longer and healthier lives—but Indigenous women’s life expectancy is shorter
Australian women live longer than men — with a life expectancy of 84.2 years compared to 79.7 years. Women are also less likely than men to have health risk factors like smoking, and high levels of alcohol consumption and overweight or obesity. However, Indigenous women are living much shorter lives than non-Indigenous women— on average 72.9 years.
Domestic violence and severe overcrowding are key issues affecting stable housing
Women are less likely than men to be homeless (42 per 10 000 women compared with 56 per 10 000 men). However 489 per 10 000 Indigenous women are homeless compared with 29% of non-Indigenous women. In very remote areas of Australia, 21% of Indigenous women live in severely crowded accommodation.
The main reason women report using homelessness services was domestic violence and family violence (34.3%). Nearly a fifth of women (18.7%) who used homelessness services also reported financial reasons as the main reason for needing them.
Women with disability face particular challenges
Women with disability face additional challenges for labour force participation. In 2009, around half (49.0%) of women with disability were in the labour force — significantly lower than the proportion of men with disability (59.8%). Women with disability are also less likely than men to use disability services. In 2010–11, 5.5% of women with disability and 8.7% of men used Employment Support Services and 31.2% of women and 37.8% of men used other disability support services.
More primary carers are women, and they have lower workforce participation
There are nearly twice as many female primary carers of people with disability (523,200) as male (248,200). Among all carers of people with disability, 61.3% of women are in the workforce compared with 76.9% of men. Female primary carers are also more likely to experience negative impacts relating to their caring role—such as feeling depressed, stressed and/or worried.
Where to from here?
The COAG Reform Council recommends the introduction of annual performance reporting on gender outcomes against national reform areas and that COAG agree that the council will identify a set of core performance indicators for annual reporting, in consultation with jurisdictions.
This report doesn’t contain a huge amount of good news for Australian women but the report itself is great news. Because this report is a roadmap: it proves inequity on the basis of gender remains a genuine issue in this country. And this is not my subjective opinion – it is a factual problem. And the tangible proof is now in the hands of the Prime Minister who also happens to be the minister for women. Over to you, Mr Abbott.