You are probably aware by now that we are in the midst of International Women’s Week. It is an important event in the calendar for anyone with a vague interest in gender equality. It is a time when, in the lead up to International Women’s Day, the world focuses its attention on girls and women.
Gender inequality manifests itself in a variety of manners. In global terms it is impossible to argue that Australian women are anything but, in many ways, privileged. Compared to the wholly repugnant acts of female genital mutilation or sex slavery which millions of young girls around the world are subject to, workplace gender inequality, for example, seems entirely palatable.
Australian girls are almost all but guaranteed an education, a privilege that is still denied to millions of children around the world, the majority of whom are female. Australian women are guaranteed a vote, they are allowed to drive and very very few Australian girls confront the reality of being forced into marriage whilst underage.
It is important to recognise there are critical bastions of equality which, on the whole, Australian women enjoy. That is not, however, a reason to accept any material chasm between men and women. Any inequality is too much inequality and inequality begets inequality.
The fact that Australian women are “more equal” than girls in other parts of the world is not a compelling argument for accepting a compromised version of equality. Currently Australian women are enjoying a compromised version of equality.
The fact Australia has plummeted in the PwC Women in Work index is proof of it. The fact that last week data revealed Australia’s pay gap has widened to another record high is proof of it. The fact that in 2015 two women have been killed each week by a partner or former partner, is proof of it.
Australian women are not on equal footing with Australian men and isn’t International Women’s Week a time to categorically reject that? Aside from owing it to ourselves, do we not owe it to the girls around the world who confront the most brutal symptoms of gender inequality to demand better than that? To demand better than “almost equal”?
Girls in Africa and the Middle East, for example, shouldn’t just have the right to have their genitals intact or the right to avoid being forced into marriage or sex slavery. They have the right to live unencumbered by any disadvantage on the basis of their sex. We all do.
That objective unites women around the world because there is not a single country in which it is not a live issue. There is no country in the world where men and women occupy equal footing. The size of the gap varies but the gap persists, and that is the very reason that International Women’s Day and International Women’s Week take place.
This is a week where every country should consider the gap that divides men and women and seek to address it. No matter how privileged or shallow that division may be, any gap that disempowers women physically or financially is too great.
That is the reason I wanted to high five my iPad this morning when I read that Senator Michaelia Cash will today unveil the government’s strategy for tackling workplace gender equality.
The minister assisting the Minister for Women will address the National Press Club today about the need for Australian organisation to improve gender inequality.
“Improving gender diversity is a complex matter and requires innovation. It is an issue that cannot be achieved by government alone,” Senator Cash said.
Accepting that we have a problem is an important starting point to resolving it. Lately I have been wondering what it would take for more Australians to accept, unequivocally, that we have a legitimate gender equality problem. We might be lucky, relatively speaking, to have the problem we do but that’s no reason to accept it. I am thrilled the government recognises this and look forward to Senator Cash’s speech today.