The 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, an initiative by the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra, has published its report ‘From girls to men: social attitudes to gender equality issues in Australia. Part 1 – Quantitative findings’.
The report focuses on the presentation of quantitative findings derived from a national survey of 2,122 Australians about their attitudes to issues of sexism and gender inequality. It responds to a profound national knowledge and data gap that, Director Virginia Haussegger AM asserts, ‘is one of the core reasons why well intentioned social policies and programs have continuously failed to close persistent gender gaps across the lifespan of Australians’.
The evidence presented in the report suggests that traditional beliefs are still holding many women back, with social norms continuing to push women into traditional roles. Although tradition no longer has a vice-like grip, the study affirms, both men and women occupying a moderate value system still share clearly defined and often stereotypical views of what men and women are better at in the home and the workplace.
As possible explanations for this rhetoric-reality gap in the home, the workplace and broader society, the study finds clues in the changing nature of work, the difficulties experienced by parents in dual earning families, and the continued absence of work-family policies that support gender equality aspirations, like paid parental leave and affordable childcare and early education. This, the Foundation notes, will be the focus for part two of the research program.
(Source: Report | Executive Summary)
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