Dismantling the Glass Ceiling

 Australian Statistics

Women in Australia

SIGNS OF THE TIMES 

  1. 55.8 per cent of women are in the labour force1 compared with 72.5 per cent of men. In 1970, 40.0 per cent of women were in the labour force compared with 83.4 per cent of men.2

  2. There is still a significant pay gap between men and women: 

    a. the ratio of female to male total average weekly earnings (including overtime and taking into account both part-time and full-time employment) is currently 66.3 per cent;3 

    b. the ratio of female to male average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adult employees (excluding overtime) is currently 84.3 per cent;4 

    c. the ratio of female to male hourly full-time adult earnings is currently 89.6 per cent.5 

  3. Women are more likely than men to work part-time - they make up 71 per cent of the part-time labour force and 34 per cent of the full-time labour force.6

  4. Employed mothers with dependant children are much more likely to work part-time than employed fathers with dependant children - 57 per cent of employed mothers work part-time compared to only 5 per cent of employed fathers.7 

  5. Women with dependant children are much less likely to be employed than men with dependant children. Unlike women with dependants, who have a consistently lower participation rate than women without dependants, men's participation rate increases with the presence of dependant children.8 

  6. Women's lifetime earnings are significantly affected by having children - in 1986 a woman with secondary education and two children was likely to earn $510,000 less over her lifetime than her childless counterpart. By 1997, women were twice as likely to return to the workforce when their children reach preschool age as they had been in 1986. Consequently, the lifetime earnings gap had narrowed to $172,000.9

  7. Men outnumber women in managerial and administrative jobs by more than three to one. 

  8. One in every 10 board members on private sector boards is a woman. 

  9. By contrast, almost one in three Commonwealth board members is a woman. 

  10. Sexual harassment remains the primary ground of complaint under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (making up just under 50 per cent) with 83 per cent of complaints under the Act lodged by women.10

Footnotes:

  1. Either employed or actively seeking work. 

  2. Figures obtained from the ABS Monthly Labour Force Survey (Cat. no 6203.0).4ws 

  3. Including managerial employees (ABS, Average Weekly Earnings Survey, May 2001). 

  4. Ibid. 

  5. Excludes overtime and accounts for the fact that men work longer full-time hours on average than women. Op.Cit. 

  6. ABS, Preliminary Labour Force Survey, May 2001. 

  7. Among partnered parents of dependant children as at June 2000 (ABS, Labour Force Australia). 

  8. ABS, Labour Force Australia, 2001. 

  9. Chapman, B., Dunlop, Y., Gray, M., Liu, A. and Mitchell, D., The Impact of Children on the Life-time Earnings of Australian Women: Evidence from the 1990s, Australian Economic Review (forthcoming). 

  10. Data obtained from HREOC, Annual Report, 1999-2000.

 Source: Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), 10 October 2001

For a detailed Statistical Report see: 

 Labour Force Statistics January 2002 

by Equal Opportunity in the Workplace Agency

 

 

Facts of life

* Thirty-nine per cent of female employees in Australia can take an average of seven weeks' paid maternity leave, up from 28 per cent in 1997.

* Although 77 per cent of women in the finance and insurance industries have access to paid maternity leave, only 1 per cent are covered in the retail sector, and 2 per cent in hotels and restaurants.

* Among developed countries, only the US and Australia have not legislated for minimum paid maternity leave across the workforce. Sweden provides 15 months of parental leave at 75 per cent of salary.

Source: The Australian,  A better life can be legislated, By Barbara Pocock

 

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