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While the pandemic showed a path forward for flexible work across the board, it hasn’t helped the overall progress of the pursuit of gender equality.
The latest update from the Financy Women’s Index has revealed a slight increase in the economic progress of women in Australia over the June quarter, to 72.9 points from March’s 72.5 points.
It’s slightly lower than the 73.2 points that was achieved in December 2021 — and even lower than the 73.3 points recorded back in June 2021.
That June result followed on from the “the most significant fall of three points on record” posted in the three months to December 2020, when the index fell to 72 points from 75 points.
The index, which measures the economic progress of women and time frames to gender equality in Australia — providing a snapshot of gender equality across seven areas: education, employment, underemployment, wages, unpaid work, ASX200 board gender diversity, and superannuation.
The latest results have been compounded by a worsening gender pay gap, which widened to 14.1 per cent in the latest edition of the index, based on the latest average weekly wages data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Weighing in on the latest data, AMP Capital’s Dr Shane Oliver said that while the most recent progress was “welcome”, “there remains a long way to go before women achieve economic equality with men”.
The chief economist continued: “The pandemic showed a path forward in enabling more flexible working, but it also had a darker side in seeing many women take on more of the tasks around the family and home.
From his perspective, “the key is to build on the positives and keep the momentum to improvement going”.
It’s a sentiment seconded by Financy Women’s Index founder Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, who has noted that leading indicators across employment and wages have been the worst hit by the pandemic.
According to the index, a widening gender pay gap in May resulted in the time frame to achieve equality in this area increasing to 23.4 years from 22.7 last quarter.
This time frame is about double that seen in employment, where the years to equality fell to 26 years in June, from 26.3 in the previous quarter.
Superannuation has a similar time frame to equality at 19 years.
Over the past quarter, the amount of time currently expected to reach equality in underemployment between the genders worsened to 16.3 years from 15 years in the March quarter.
Unpaid work remains the worst-performing indicator, which stands at 59 years before equality would be achieved, based on the most recent data.
In more positive news, the time frame to achieving gender equality in ASX200 board leadership is now the closest than any other indicator — having approved to 6.2 years from 6.4 years.
This is based on the rate of annual growth over the past decade.
But even this indicator is not without its concerns, with Ms Hartge-Hazelman noting that the pace of progress towards gender equality in leadership continues to slow.
“Because of this, it is questionable if we will even achieve equality before 2030 in this area,” she concluded.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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