Cultural Diversity and Gender Inequality in Australia: A Report

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY- ASSESSMENT 2

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Australian statistics relating to the issue..........................................................................................3
Discussion of how the issue is portrayed in the media....................................................................3
Discussion of the discourse and the impact it may have on society................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Diversity can be understood as the amount of variety that a society and the culture consists. That
can be based on gender, age and experience. The aim for this research is to study about women
diversity or gender diversity; this can be in society and in the workplace. Gender diversity can
be understood as equitable position given to all the genders in the society. In Australia women
has been dealing with such diversity for a very long time, this can be in workplace and in the
culture. There are some features reported by media in past few years that have been highlighting
the issues with gender equality and how women are dealing with that. There have been certain
gaps reported in the overall process thus affecting the career development and empowerment of
women. Media has been working closely to identify the associated causes for the same and has
published various articles that represent the steps taken by the government and the companies to
deal with these issues. The narrowing labor market has been affecting the gap between the men
and women and thus there are only a few jobs left for them to perform.
Australian statistics relating to the issue
As per the analysis of World economic foru, the Global Gender Report says that in Australia the
Gender inequality has led it to fall to 46th position globally. In Australia talking about the
managerial position only 37% of the women make up to that position and rest usually perform
low-level jobs. The pay gap is seen to be 23.1% and this has been costing women $27,000 a year.
According to Australian government, women are 42% of the overall workforce in which most of
them are part-time workers, some are casual employees and very rare are full-time employees.
There has been a target by ASX200 that by the end of 2018 there have to be 30% female
directors to strengthen women diversity. However, there are only 53 companies that have
reached the target so far thus affecting the global challenges and associated values for the
women. As per Australian Institute Company directors, women have accounted for all 42% of
the new appointments that were launched in the previous year. There are still companies that do
not have any female director. Around 22 ASX200 boards are there that may not have any female
directors. The development of such issues is persistent and a solution is being searched (Ghosh,
et. al., 2018).

Discussion of how the issue is portrayed in the media
Forbes: The magazine has been talking about the inequalities that have been faced by women in
the workplace and the number of opportunities that are available for women in Australia. There
has been some significant development but in order to eradicate gender disparity the glacial pace
is to be removed from that. As per the article the women have been taking home $283.20 less
than their male counterpart in spite of working equally. At workplace, around 22% of the
women coming in the age group of 19-65 has been facing sexual harassment. Not only in the
workplace but at home also many of them has been facing physical and sexual violence. This can
be said that this inequality is maybe due to oppressed cultural features and trends in society.
Forbes believes that the changes can be seen when the masculinity in the overall society supports
the changes (Stilinovic, 2017).
Adnews: This has been observed in this media channel that the need to strengthen diversity is
there in all the industries. Talking about the media and marketing industry women play a very
important role. Many companies have realized the importance of a diverse workforce and work
environment that is creative inclusive. This has been observed from the customer’s point of view
also that the unique ideas and behavior of people can help in the development of overall
consumer base and variety in the process. The article has quoted various examples of media
advertisements and campaigns that have been focusing on breaking stereotypes and thus
reflecting a progressive environment. The article was also using the examples of affinity bias and
confirmation bias and how working with different people with different cultural diversity can
help in the future. The article also highlighted features associated with gender stereotyping and
availability of options for women. The media has been highlighting the need of society in
adapting women in their day to day activities and giving equal values to them (Spearritt, 2018).
The Guardian: As per this report the major concept that was highlighted was the inequality and
status of the women in the society. Talking about the economic equality this has been seen in all
the countries that none of the women are economically equal. There are various complex and
intervened reasons that explain the cause of poverty among women and the series of barriers and
setbacks that have been affecting their value in culture and society. This poverty is entrenched
around all the places in the country whether that is a workplace or any personal relationship

women are not treated equally. Women have been struggling to make its mark on our education,
our homes, our familial responsibilities our employment, and our retirement options. ABS
statistics show that women in childbearing age group(25-44) are two and half times more likely
to work in the labor force as any other men in the country. In Australia the women are
considered to be primary caregiver of the home and the men are taken to be primary bread giver
of the family. This ancient thought is still there in society (Dawson, 2018).
Discussion of the discourse and the impact it may have on society
This has been seen that devaluation of women is very pervasive in the society, thus the same has
been affecting the global needs of the same in future benefits of the culture. The tax and transfer
system of the society depicts the evaluation of the same on the overall wages and the pay
distribution in the industries. This has been seen that women have unpaid domestic labor, making
relative poverty of Australian women in old age. More and more people are involving
themselves in the media and making substantial changes in their point of view and taking
measures to deal with the society effectively. With the help of media and journalism, a lot of
awareness has been seen in the process thus developing an effective way to deal with this
scenario. The people in Australia are highly cultural and are very much inclined to those values
only thus to make a woman in power is in some way a cultural problem for them. The society is
divided into sections in which one is in favor to give equal rights and opportunity to women
while the other beliefs in following cultural areas to deal with society. People have become quite
aware of the situation and there have been many laws that support women and help in developing
effective culture and process to reduce the struggle of women (Wali & Renzaho, 2018).
This diversity in thinking has led to some raging fear in society and make nagging changes and
has developed certain issues to deal with the idea. Some people fear to face backlash in society
among both the genders and their ideas. Some fear if the power and importance are shifted a
little bit on the woman then the men will have no say in the board and their ideas will not be
accepted with that much importance. This will help in making effective changes in society and
developing an overall scenario to deal with the needs of the gender balance. People are changing
their perception and their knowledge about women and they have been trying to give them
chances every time they want thus the same can help to raise the level of women and their

perception in the society. This has shown some positive aspects in the development of society
(Varol, et. al., 2017).
Conclusion
This can be said that the ancient impact of cultural diversity has been vastly affecting gender
equality and woman empowerment. The need to give them the equal opportunity is relatively
high. With constant awareness being spread by media there have been some changes in the
society as many companies have accepted woman managers. There have been certain
communities that have developed some movements to develop women education, exposure, and
opportunities. The cultural implication still refrains most of the woman to their house and they
can work part or part-time in most cases. With the generation of various campaigns and
advertisement, this can be expected in the future that women will have a better say in society.

References
 Dawson, Emma (2018). Most poor people in the world are women. Australia is no
exception. Theguardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/07/most-poor-people-in-the-
world-are-women-australia-is-no-exception [Accessed on 26th June 2019]
 Stilinovic, Milly (2017). How Far Has Australia Come In Terms Of Gender Equality?
Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/millystilinovic/2017/03/07/how-
far-has-australia-come-in-terms-of-gender-equality/#794b05584eaf [Accessed on 26th
June 2019]
 Spearritt, Katie (2018). Diversity matters to Australia’s media and marketing industry.
Adnews.co. Available at: http://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/diversity-matters-to-
australia-s-media-and-marketing-industry#cTJirGTPfqbirt6f.99[Accessed on 26th June
2019]
 Ghosh, T., & Ramanayake, S. S. (2018). Women empowerment and good times: Which
one leads to the other?(No. 2018-004). Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research,
Mumbai, India.
 Wali, N., & Renzaho, A. M. (2018). “Our riches are our family”, the changing family
dynamics & social capital for new migrant families in Australia. PloS one, 13(12),
e0209421.
 Varol, N., Hall, J. J., Black, K., Turkmani, S., & Dawson, A. (2017). Evidence-based
policy responses to strengthen health, community and legislative systems that care for
women in Australia with female genital mutilation/cutting. Reproductive health, 14(1),
63.