Workplace Gender Equality Strategy Project - Final Report

Abstract

Progress towards workplace gender equality is a national priority. For Australian organisations, closing the gender gap and maximising the potential of both male and female employees is crucial for increasing productivity and securing future growth. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA’s; 2014) gender equality indicators have found that while 45% of Australian employers have policies on flexible work, and family and caring responsibilities, only about 13% have a strategy for implementing such policies. Over half of organisations have a standalone gender equality policy, but only 7% have a gender equality strategy. Women’s representation is low at management levels, with women comprising around 26% of the top three layers of the management hierarchy in Australian organisations with 100 or more employees. Pursuit of flexible work practices and promotion of gender equity needs to be implemented in a more strategic, integrated and sustainable way in order to have real effect at the workplace level.