Gender equality consultation launched as one in three men still raise doubt

Human Resources: Over the years, Australia has made progress towards gender equality, however, there is evidence that in a number of areas progress is slowing or has stalled. 

Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher, has launched a survey and discussion paper to inform the development of the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality.

Senator Gallagher said “The reality is, while we are making some gains on gender equality, we are not there yet and, in some aspects of women’s lives, progress has stalled. Shining a light on these statistics may be confronting but it is crucial if we are to have an honest conversation about gender equality in this country.”

30% of Australian men don’t believe that gender inequality exists – that’s more than the global average (21%), according to the Status of Women Report Card. Encouragingly, pharma and medtech companies, like BMS, Medtronic and J&J MedTech take an active role in involving male advocates in their gender equality efforts and programs.

Diversity Council Australia (DCA) also released new research this week focussing on how the intersections of two key marginalising characteristics – race and gender – are operating in Australian workplaces.

“Up to now, only some women have benefited from the work of the gender equality movement,” said DCA CEO, Lisa Annese.

The research results showed that 78% of culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) women wanted to advance to senior leadership levels. Yet, 65% agreed that CARM women employees received fewer opportunities for career advancements than other women. Also, 66% of the women said they felt they had to “act white” to get ahead and 85% felt they had to work twice as hard as employees who weren’t CARM women to get the same treatment or evaluation.

While data shows that only 12.8% of female board members are non-Anglo Celtic and of this 3% are Indigenous, Amgen’s mentoring program Women Empowered to be Exceptional (WE2) addresses not only gender equity but also cultural diversity across the JPAC region.

“There are universal truths whether I’m a woman sitting in Taiwan, Japan China, or Thailand. We all have some similarities in the challenges we face and the things we want to achieve at work or even at home. I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done at Amgen to make sure that we’re supporting each other cross culturally, but also within our own group of female employees, leaders and allies,” said Gabi Mittas, General Manager, Amgen ANZ in an earlier interview.

“It’s a conversation I’d like to see all Australians take part in and I’d encourage everyone to share their experiences through the survey, as part of the next phase of consultation for the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality,” Senator Gallagher added.

The Status of Women Report Card released this week draws on the rich data available to provide a picture of the experience of women in Australia and illustrates the challenges women and girls in Australia face throughout their life span.

Due to be released in the second half of this year, the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality will guide action “to make Australia one of the best countries in the world for gender equality”.

Consultation to inform the National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality is open until 19 April 2023.

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