Gender Equality in Australia: Workplace, Education, Politics

This essay examines the state of gender equality in Australia, focusing on three key areas: workplace participation, educational opportunities, and political representation. It highlights the progress made in recent decades, particularly in education, health, and female workforce participation. However, it also acknowledges the persistent gender gaps, such as the wage gap and underrepresentation of women in leadership roles and political decision-making. The essay discusses historical changes, policy impacts, and ongoing challenges within each area. For instance, it details the shift in women's employment, the increasing presence of women in universities, and the low number of women in Australian politics, emphasizing the need for further steps to achieve true gender equality across various sectors of Australian society. The essay concludes by underscoring the need for continued efforts to address gender inequality and promote equal opportunities for all.

Running head: GENDER EQUALITY
GENDER EQUALITY
Name of the student:
Name university:
Author note:

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Gender inequality holds a major barrier for people in realizing their rights and access to
opportunities for girls and women in Australia. Gender inequality is a global issue that is
observed high in some states and low in some other (Blau, 2016). Along with various changes in
the society, changed is observed in the phenomenon of gender inequality too. Many states are
working to not only reduce but to eliminate it from society. Australia is one of the states where
women have made significant strides towards equality with men in the recent decades. A
growing number of women are taking on leadership roles in Australia including education sector,
employment sector, in the government and boardrooms. The paper will discuss the ways gender
equality in Australia considering working place participation, educational opportunities and
political representation.
Gender equality in employment representation in Australia
Gender equality in workplace is attained when the same resources, opportunities and
rewards are accessed and enjoyed by every member equally regardless of their gender. Australia
along with many countries worldwide has shown several changes towards gender inequality in
the recent decades. A significant progress can be observed in Australia specifically in the field of
education, health and female workforce participation. However in the Australia the gender gap is
still prevalent. Women are still earning less than men and they are likely to advance their careers
much lesser than men. Also, with comparison to men, two men accumulate less retirement
savings as well as superannuation savings (Equality Rights Alliance, 2018). Gender equality in
workplace mainly aims for achieving broadly equal opportunities and outcomes for women and
men. Although women of Australia are no different than other women worldwide, the gender gap
in Australia is narrowing. The gender gap have narrowed down to a certain extent in Australia
however the gap between the earning of men and women is per hour and over a career still

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happens to be very big(Hakim, 2016). Reflecting on 1950s, women aged between 25 to 60 had
paid work however it was one third of the total women population. Most of the women during
that period were disallowed to do any professional job after the marriage. In the present days, the
changes have made possible to witness women working population of more than 60 percent. The
60 per cent is the highest share it came across by Australia. It is important to mention, that the
changes in Australia is not by accident but by many policy changes that have helped in bringing
alteration in the workplace. In the year 1970s, a million women in Australia were approved as
eligible for equal pay (Hakim, 2016). An equal pay minimum wage legislated and the title of
‘breadwinner’ was removed from the men which were received earlier by men. Common wealth
employees began to receive paid maternity leave and state began to invest in women working
centers as well as childcare centers. However, even with the development and growth there is a
long way to go in reducing gender inequality in the workplace. The hourly rate of pay in
Australia for women are still having a lower than men. Women’s earning is approximately 11 per
cent less than men per hour. The key reason women are paid so less is for the earning gap
between the men and women (Sabia & Wooden, 2015).
Gender equality in educational representation in Australia
Few decades earlier, the representation of women was one-fifth of every university
students. However, today they compromise more than half of the entire student population. Since
last few years, the population of women in the education sector has only being growing in the
Australian universities. Gender equity is no more a problem for the Australian universities. The
gender inequality in Australian university is only a concept to be aware as it is not found
anymore. More than half of Australian university body is consists of women andincluding staff
employed (Winchester & Browning, 2015). Despite recent growth and gains in women’s

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contribution in universities both students and staffs, there still remains gender differences. These
gender differences cannot be related to women as the population of men moving to non-
traditional fields of study has decresed. The gender gap can be observed in this sector;most of
females in universities have general staff roles whereas males get the role of academic staff.
Significant gain has been made in female academic in terms of security of employment. A
decades ago roughly one-quarter of all have accounted as tenured staff. Growth has been
observed in this sector gradually while ultimately there are now more women in senior level of
academic than it was before. Nevertheless, in the academic hierarchy women tend to remain at
the bottom. Although women are securing leadership roles in the academic area, observing the
senior executives in Australian universities, women still only accounts for only 29 per
cent.According to gender differences in student enrollment the divide between typical male and
female fields of study is a strong factor. There is high number of female students who are
increasingly taking part in the STEM subjects in the on-traditional filed such as technology,
health and education. However, even though they have benefitted in entering the non-traditional
fields, their representation in the engineering and technology related courses is undervalued. In
both the fields, female students are concentrated mostly in the social science, humanities,
education, health and arts. This has a severe impact on the entire education system where
females who despite being interested so not peruse their career. The student body’s gender
profile is significant for equity reasons as well as the impact it may have on student’s
potentialemployment, income and opportunity as well as the gender composition of the labor
market (Bunce, Baird & Jones, 2017).

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Gender equality in political representation in Australia
In the case of political representation in Australia, it has been very much evident that
number of Australian women is not at all to the expected level. In fact, the number of women
representatives in Australian politics is very low. In the ministerial cabinet of Tony Abbott, there
are very few female representatives (Rai, 2017). This has raised the concern regarding the
presence of sexism in the Australian politics. The scholars have evidently smashed and criticized
the viewpoint of Prime Minister Tony Abbott himself. A recent example can be given in this
discourse. It is of the by-elections at Tasmanian University Union Northern Student
Representative Council when James Richie had been elected as the women’s welfare officer
despite the fact his opponent was a female. This signifies the fact females have not been given
enough importance in the scenario of Australian politics.
Critics have argued in favor of the fact that women are still going through lots of
struggles in the contemporary times because of they have not been able to influence the people.
Thus the gender gap in the Australian politics has become very much clear indeed. The women
in Australian politics have not been presented with the proper opportunities for the decision
making (Rai, 2017). The gender gap in the Australian politics can be understood in terms of
gender gap in the voting system. Therefore, women have not been preferred to be selected as the
public representatives. In the various regions across Australia, the number of women MPs has
decreased with time. Therefore, it suggests that it has become very tough for the female
participants to enter the parliamentary activities. This has sent a direct and clear cut message to
all the females and girls within the Australian community (Shepherd & True, 2014).
The probable reason that can be identified for the smaller number of representatives in
politics in Australia is the nasty and dirty politics. This has made the women decide to refrain

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away from active politics (Hartley, 2017). Therefore, the position of men on allowing women in
the politics is non-cooperative as well. Men do no not want women to participate in politics
because they want to stick in the centre of power. This is why they are not ready to give up their
parliamentary seats in the Federal cabinets (McCann & Wilson, 2014). Therefore, it has created a
big barrier for the women to take part in political dealings within Australian Federal politics.
On a concluding note it can be said that gender inequality has been a great problem
within many scenarios in Australia. The three aspects that have been chosen are political
representation, educational opportunities and workplace participation. In most of the cases it has
been seen that women have not been able to take part because of patriarchal dominance within
their social structure. Therefore, their number of representatives in these scenarios has fallen
down as well. This situation must be dealt with proper steps because it will create a bad impact
in their society.

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References:
Blau, F. D. (2016). Gender, inequality, and wages. OUP Catalogue.
Hakim, C. (2016). Key issues in women's work: Female diversity and the polarisation of
women's employment. Routledge-Cavendish.
Sabia, J. J., & Wooden, M. (2015). Sexual identity, earnings, and labour market dynamics: New
evidence from longitudinal data in Australia.
Winchester, H. P., & Browning, L. (2015). Gender equality in academia: a critical
reflection. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(3), 269-281.
Bunce, L., Baird, A., & Jones, S. E. (2017). The student-as-consumer approach in higher
education and its effects on academic performance. Studies in Higher Education, 42(11),
1958-1978.
Hartley, J. (2017). The Politics of Pictures: the creation of the public in the age of the popular
media. Routledge.
McCann, J., & Wilson, J. (2014). Representation of women in Australian parliaments 2014.
Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services.
Rai, S. (2017). Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state: Institutional mechanisms for the
advancement of women. Routledge.
Shepherd, L. J., & True, J. (2014). The Women, Peace and Security agenda and Australian
leadership in the world: from rhetoric to commitment?. Australian Journal of
International Affairs, 68(3), 257-284.

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Equality Rights Alliance (2018, July 25). Gender Equality in Australia. Retrieved from
https://www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au/who-we-are/gender-equality-in-australia/