The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the latest issue of ‘Gender Indicators, Australia’; a resource for social analysis and research in gender equality. The issue contains 56 key indicators and a further 96 related or detailed data series, spread across six domains:

  • Economic security;
  • Education;
  • Health;
  • Work and family balance;
  • Safety and justice;
  • Democracy, governance and citizenship.

Key findings

ABS Program Manager, Dean Bowley noted that young women are continuing to achieve higher levels of education than young men. As of 2017, about 45 per cent of women had attained a bachelor’s degree or above by the age of 30, compared to 32 per cent of men. Nevertheless, after graduation, the median starting salary in 2017 for full-time employed women was $59,000 while for men it was $60,100.

Women trail men in three key measures related to economic security: employment, income and wealth. Women also remain under-represented in government and business.

“Despite this progress, there are still plenty of challenges. The gender pay gap has remained stable over the last decade, with women earning 89 per cent of the earnings of men, taking into account the differences in working hours. Superannuation balances for women approaching retirement are 37 per cent lower than men”.

The average superannuation balance for women approaching retirement (55 to 64 years old) was $196,000, while for men it was $310,000. On average, women live longer than men (84.6 years compared to 80.4 years).

Mr Bowley noted a key influence on the gap in superannuation balances was the higher proportion of women employed part-time. Almost three times as many employed women (44 per cent) worked part-time, when compared to employed men (16 per cent).

The report also found that women are still the primary carers in Australia. Almost all primary parental care leave for non-public sector employees was taken by women –however, women employees in all sectors were slightly more likely than men to be employed with no leave entitlements. Twice as many women as men provide primary care to a person with a disability. Finally, while men and women averaged the same hours for paid and unpaid work overall, men spent twice as long as women in employment related activities, and women spent twice as long as men in unpaid work, particularly domestic activities and childcare.

(Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics | Media release | Highlights)

From the blog: Topics – Gender equality.

Comments are closed.