When we talk about Australia’s housing crisis, we often picture young couples struggling to buy their first home. What gets less attention is the way the crisis is reshaping life for women, especially those in the jobs our communities rely on the most.
New research from Anglicare Australia shows that female-dominated professions are among the hardest hit by soaring rents. Our Rental Affordability Snapshot: Essential Workers Edition tested more than 51,000 rental listings against the wages of sixteen essential jobs. The results were stark.
An early childhood educator could afford just 0.8 percent of rentals across the country. Aged care workers could afford 1.7 percent. Nurses, 1.5 percent. Cleaners, many of whom are women, could afford less than 1 percent.
These figures are not abstract. They mean that in many towns and cities, women working full-time in these professions cannot find a single home they can afford. In Victoria, childcare workers could afford just 53 out of more than 12,000 listings. In the ACT, hospitality workers, another female-dominated workforce, could not afford a single property.
This is not only a crisis for the women themselves. It is a crisis for everyone who depends on them. When educators cannot afford to live near childcare centres, parents will struggle to find care. When nurses and aged care staff are forced out of their communities, hospitals and nursing homes cannot fill rosters. When cleaners cannot afford housing, workplaces and public spaces go without the people who keep them safe and functioning.
Australia’s housing system is failing women twice over. First, it is failing them directly, as they are shut out of affordable homes even while working full-time in critical jobs. Second, it is failing them indirectly, as families and communities bear the brunt when schools, hospitals, and services cannot retain staff.
Governments have created this crisis by retreating from the direct provision of housing, while showering investors with tax breaks that fuel speculation. The result is a system that rewards those who already own property and punishes those who don’t, especially women, who earn less on average and are more likely to work in casual or low-paid jobs.
It does not have to be this way. We can choose to build the housing we need, instead of hoping it “trickles down” from the private market. We can reform tax concessions so that they stop fuelling speculation and start funding homes for people who need them. And we can strengthen renter protections so that women and families are not left at the mercy of sudden rent hikes and evictions.
At the height of the Second World War, governments recognised the urgent need for secure housing and built tens of thousands of homes each year. We need that same ambition now. If we cannot even house the women who care for us when we are sick, educate our children, and support us as we age, then what kind of society are we building?
This is not just about fairness for women in essential jobs, though that alone should be enough to spur action. It is also about the survival of the services every Australian depends on. Without secure, affordable homes for women on the frontline, our whole community is at risk.
The housing crisis is not inevitable. It is the result of choices. It can also be the result of different choices – ones that puts the people our communities depend on at the heart of our housing system.