An Analysis of Equality and Gender Gap in Australia
The gender pay gap between men and women in Australia is a subject of great contention. Throughout Australia’s relatively short history, women have taken many great strides towards gender equality, as can be seen in the first instance of ruling that women should receive equal pay to men in the 1969 Equal Pay Case by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission (Parliament of Australia, n.d.). The gender gap between men and women is however still prevalent, in regard to both social and political influence. In 2017, Australia ranked 35th in the global gender index (World Economic Forum, 2017), with an average gender pay gap across all industries of 15.3% (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017). This shows that Australia still has far to go in terms of gender equality. This essay will focus on the economic aspects of gender equality in Australia and aim to provide an analysis of the gender pay gap between men and women.
What is the gender pay gap?
It is important to clarify what is meant by the term “gender pay gap”. It refers to the disparity in the earnings of men versus women, as opposed to the payment rates of wages (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2018). As the gender pay gap is based upon averages across a diverse range of industries, closing the gender pay gap would involve encouraging women and men to participate in more diverse industries than the social normative would suggest. For example, women are historically more likely to contribute to nursing or teaching, whereas men would be more represented in the science and business sectors (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). Furthermore, men are more likely to work away from home meaning they have access to more jobs with higher pay, whereas women stay at home more often. Statistically, men are more likely to work in jobs with a higher chance of danger than women, which are often on the higher end of the pay spectrum due to the risk involved (Peterson J, 2018).
Women are also less likely to peruse the higher paying senior roles than men. This is not a lack of ambition form women, but due to their circumstances. These kinds of roles, particularly in the business industry, require rigid working hours and lack accomodations for women who wish to have children. While many workplaces have maternity leave and programs for new mothers, this does not necessarily allow enough leeway or time for women who have children. Women also often choose to take on less demanding roles once they have had children, where the pay is usually lower. This results in women and men reaching their middle-age with many women stagnating in their career and men moving forward at a faster rate due to them taking less time off for childcare (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018).
The impact of gender roles
Gender norms and roles are deeply embedded in Australian culture, with women traditionally assuming the role of the stay-at-home wife or mother. Although this barrier has long been broken, there is still a trend of women taking on a more domestic role than men resulting in a higher proportion of unpaid working hours for women. This includes work involving housework and childcare, skewing the statistics of the number of hours worked and further contributes to the gender pay gap (Workplace Gender Equality Agency & Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, 2018). Furthermore, women do not participate in the workforce on equal terms as men in that the types of jobs that are considered suitable for men and women differ greatly, continuing the cultural gender normative expectations. There is some social stigma surrounding women working in traditionally masculine jobs such as plumbing or engineering, and vice versa with men working in traditionally feminine jobs such as childcare and teaching resulting in a lack of representation of both genders in many industries (Workplace Gender Equality Agency & Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, 2018).
Additionally, although equal pay is legally mandated it is not necessarily a give in. Pay is determined by actions and not identity, meaning that portions of payments such as bonuses and raises are more likely to be obtained by men (Peterson J, 2018). However, actions come from identity, culture and social expectations, and so the gender pay gap is fuelled partially by women and men having differing roles in society.
What can be done to close the gap?
Many attempts have been made to encourage women to participate in industries and jobs that have traditionally been targeted towards their male counterparts. Male dominated industries, for example . The medical industry is one which displays the gender divide clearly, with a higher percentage of women working as registered nurses with generally less pay being than the male dominated realm of doctors and surgeons. Women are more likely to choose nursing as a career, and if more women are encouraged to pursue careers as doctors and other highly paid medical professionals and gain access to the education and tools required, the gender pay gap would lessen (Fitzgerald G, 2017).
One a wider scale, one method of closing the gender pay gap is within companies themselves, in both the public and private sectors. The private sector has traditionally maintained a larger gender pay gap than the public sector, which could largely be due to a lack of transparency of the companies. However, this can and is changing with many larger companies beginning to release their gender pay gap statistics and their attempted resolutions of this issue. An example of a company taking responsibility for the gender pay gap is the multinational professional services firm KPMG, which in 2017 released a pay gap report detailing the gender and ethnicity pay gap statistics within the company (KPMG LLP, 2017). Further to this in 2018 KPMG Australia issued its report on ending workforce discrimination against women (KPMG Australia, 2018), outlining the discrepancies between its male and female employees. Companies of this size hold the influence and power to assist in closing the gender pay gap, and KPMG is one of many providing a framework for more Australian companies to follow suit with these reports. This is a growing trend for companies to release their gender pay gap statistics, and this kind of transparency from powerful corporations assists in closing the gender pay gap by creating more awareness of the existence of the gender pay gap and reinforces the benefits of closing this gap (Workplace Gender Equality Agency & Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, 2018).
The political benefits of closing the gap
The political benefits of closing the gender gap, in terms of Australia, are largely surrounding the improvement of democracy as a system. Democracy is based upon choice and representation of a diverse range of members of society, and would benefit with a greater representation of women in Australia state and federal politics. The two largest political parties in Australia, the Labor and Liberal parties, are an example of one method of improving women’s representation by the use of gender-based quotas. The Labor party employs Affirmative Action Policies, which requires the party to employ a certain percentage of women in various roles. This has resulted in 50% of positions within the party being occupied by women (O’Neil C, 2018). Conversely, the liberal party does not have the same quota policies and only has roughly 30% female representation (O’Neil C, 2018).
Diversity is necessary in politics as differing groups of people would benefit from decisions being made which affect them by people who are affected themselves. Greater equality equals a happier community, and the political focus can shift to other important matters once the gender pay gap issue is resolved. Additionally, closing the gap would create a more stable political environment and room for improvements on a higher level.
The economic benefits of closing the gap
The economic benefits of closing the gender pay gap can be viewed on a spectrum as they vary from large to small. One the larger scale of Australia’s economy as a whole, closing the gender pay gap by encouraging more women to work for longer and making more accomodations for women with things like maternity leave would result in utilising the majority of the available workforce. This would generate a higher overall GDP and thus more spending capacity and power for both the government and individuals. Currently, women on average reach retirement with comparatively less in their superannuation funds than men (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). This leaves women more prone to poverty in their old age, and requires more funding from the state to support their living expenses. Closing the gender pay gap would assist women in maintaining a steady deposit into their superannuation funds and lead to them having a higher quality of life by ensuring financial security post-retirement and would allow women the option to retire earlier.
Conclusions
Ultimately, the gender pay gap is very much prevalent in modern day Australia. The causes of the gender pay gap range from discrimination to cultural and social values, and this is gradually changing in favour of equality. There would be many political and economic benefits to closing this gap, and although there have been many failed attempts there have also been successes from various members of the public and private sectors. With consistent perseverance and addressing the underlying causes and issues, the gender pay gap in Australia could close in the near future.
References
Australian Human Rights Commission 2017, Unleashing the Power of Gender Equality, viewed 24 October 2018, <https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_SDC_Unleashing_power_gender_equality_2017.pdf >
Australian Human Rights Commission 2018, Face the Facts: Gender Equality, viewed 24 October 2018, <https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018_Face_the_Facts_Gender_Equality.pdf >
Fitzgerald G 2017, The Gender Pay Gap in Medicine, Level Medicine, viewed 26 October 2018, <https://www.levelmedicine.org.au/resources/completed-fellowship-papers/gender-pay-gap/ >
KPMG Australia, 2018, Ending Workforce Discrimination Against Women, viewed 23 October 2018, < https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2018/ending-workforce-discrimination-against-women-april-2018.pdf >
KPMG LLP, 2017, Pay Gap Report 2017, viewed 23 October 2018, <https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/uk/pdf/2017/12/pay-gap-report-2017.pdf >
O’Neil C 2018, Q&A Gender Pay Gap, online video, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, viewed 23 October 2018, <https://youtu.be/wtCOGEtUYeg>
Parliament of Australia n.d., History of Employment Law, viewed 25 October 2018, https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Browse_by_Topic/employmentlaw/Historyemploymentlaw
Peterson J 2018, Jordan Peterson Debate on the Gender Pay Gap, Campus Protests and Postmodernism, Channel 4 News, viewed 24 October 2018, <https://youtu.be/aMcjxSThD54>
World Economic Forum 2017, The Global Gender Gap Report 2017, viewed 24 October 2018, < http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2017.pdf >
Workplace Gender Equality Agency 2018, Australia’s Gender Pay Gap Statistics, Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Sydney, viewed 25 October 2018, <https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/gender-pay-gap-statistic.pdf >
Workplace Gender Equality Agency & Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre 2018, Gender Equity Insights 2018 Inside Australia’s Gender Pay Gap, viewed 25 October 2018, <https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/97249_Gender-Equity-Insights-2018.pdf >