Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service
The Albanese Government has released the second annual Status of Women Report Card showing what life looks like for women and girls in Australia in 2024.
The Government promised to release a report card every International Women’s Day to shine a light on where progress towards gender equality has stalled and where more effort is needed.
The 2024 report card shows that women in Australia are diverse, educated, and hardworking.
It shows that while Australia has the fourth highest level of tertiary educated women in the OECD, Australian women still earn less than men, do more hours of unpaid care and are less likely to be in leadership positions.
It shows that serious disparities remain between men and women:
- Women do over 9 hours a week more unpaid work and care than men.
- 26% of women who recently experienced sexual harassment experienced it at work.
- 43% of young women aged 16 to 24 reject gender inequality, compared with 20% of young men.
- Almost a third of women aged 15 to 34 years were diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety in 2021.
- Only 9% of CEOs in the ASX300 are women.
However, recent progress also shows that if employers and governments work to support gender equality, things can change. The 2024 report card shows that:
- The gender pay gap is at a record low of 12%.
- Australia ranked 26th globally for gender equality compared to 43rd in the 2023 report card.
- 60.4% of women over the age of 15 are employed compared to 59.9% included in the 2023 report card.
- There have been slight increases in women holding post school qualifications, women with bachelor degrees or above, and women enrolled in vocational and education STEM course.
- 21 per cent of employers are offering paid parental leave equally to women and men – and this figure is increasing.
Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, said the Report Card is putting data at the forefront of the discussion on gender equality in Australia.
“I’m determined to use this Report Card, alongside other important mechanisms like the reporting of employer pay gaps to recognise where we are making progress and highlight areas where we must re-double our efforts.”
“Since the first report card was issued last year, Australia’s world gender equality ranking has jumped up 17 places from 43rd to 26th as a direct result of Labor’s commitment to gender equal representation in politics.”
The Report Card will be an important mechanism for measuring the impacts and progress of the Government’s Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality, which was released this week.
The full Status of Women Report Card(link is external) will be available at: www.genderequality.gov.au(link is external).
