Gender inequality in Australia

Gender inequality can be defined as the unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. Individuals can be marginalised and discriminated from society and be restricted to participate in society due to their gender.^[1] Australian women, men, and transgender and non-binary people may all experience aspects of gender inequality. In 2017, Australia ranked as the 35th best country for gender equality.^[2]

Legislation

Various legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 addresses gender inequality. The legislation covers the issues of discrimination in education, partnerships, marital status, sexual harassment and potential pregnancy.^{[citation needed]} This legislation was pushed and supported by the Bill put forward by South Australia's Premier, Don Dunstan in 1975.^[3]

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency is an Australian Government statutory agency charged with promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces. It is responsible for administering the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012,^[4] which replaced the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency was formerly known as the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency.^[5]

Gender pay gap

Main article: Gender pay gap in Australia

The gender pay gap refers to men and women not receiving equal pay for equal work.^[6] In Australia, the principle of "equal pay for equal work" was introduced in 1969. Anti-discrimination on the basis of sex was legislated in 1984.^[7] All government statistics in this area do not compare like-for-like roles but are an average on both male and female total wages.^[8]

Between 1990 and 2009, the gender pay gap remained within a narrow range of between 15 and 17%.^[9] In November 2017, the Australian gender pay gap was 15.3%.^[10] In 2018, it was reported that Australia’s full-time gender pay gap was 14.6% and women earnt on average A$244.80 per week less than men.^[6] It was also reported that Western Australia had the highest pay gap by state and territory (22.4%), while the lowest pay gap was reported in Tasmania (9.7%).^[6] As well, the highest pay gap by industry in Australia was Financial and Insurance Services (26.6%) and the lowest pay gap by industry was Public Administration and Safety (5.8%).^[6]

Studies show that unexplained differences in wages may be due to direct discrimination, or to other unmeasured differences between men and women, calculations do not account for education, experience or area of work so little can be known about the causes.^[11][9][12]

Studies that examine the gender pay gap across the entire wage distribution find that the gender pay gap is much greater among high wage earners than among low wage earners even after controlling for various individual and workplace related factors. These results indicate that a glass ceiling may be found in the Australian labour market.^[13][14]

Violence

Sexual harassment violence

Many Australians have experienced sexual harassment and/or sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. In 2022, a survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission found that 41% of women, and 26% of men have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace within the past 5 years.^[15]

It was reported in 2018, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience violence at around twice the rate of non-Indigenous women.^[1]

Domestic violence

Main article: Domestic violence in Australia

In Australia, 17% of women and 6.1% of men have experienced intimate partner violence since the age of 15. 23% of women and 16% of men have experienced emotional abuse since the age of 15.^[16] It was also reported in 2018 that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised from domestic violence than non-Indigenous Australian women.^[1] Due to these high rates, it was estimated in 2015-2016 that domestic violence against women and their children was costing the Australian Government $22 billion.^[2]

Imprisonment

Further information: Punishment in Australia

Within prisons throughout Australia, the male population makes up the majority of those imprisoned. Specifically in New South Wales, over 9 in 10 (92%) of prisoners were male.^[17]

The rate of male prisoners has continued to increase in recent years. Growing from 398 to 406 prisoners per 100,000 male adult population.^[17]

Among the imprisoned population of Australia, there is a vast over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, accounting for just over a quarter (27%) of the Australian prisoner population. This is despite only accounting for 2% of the Australian population. These incarceration rates regarding male Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals increased by 22.4% between 2000 and 2010.^[17]

Crime

Main article: Crime in Australia

The male population of Australia disproportionately commits violence at a much higher rate than the rest of the Australian population.^{[citation needed]}

A report released in Victoria by the Crime Statistics Agency reported that around 80% of all crime in Australia was committed by men.^[18]

Health

Differences in health is illustrated through the data retrieved from the ABS, where it gap between men and women in terms of life expectancy. In 1998, the life expectancy of men was 75.9 compared to 81.5 for women.^[19]

Australian women have a higher life expectancy than men, with women's life expectancy being 84.2 years and men's life expectancy of 79.7. Despite this discrepancy, women's health gets four times more funding than men's health, with women's health getting $833 million since 2003 and men's health got less than $200 million. Men are 60% more likely to die from cancer. There is no reliable test for prostate cancer, but there is one for breast cancer, despite prostate cancer being a bigger killer than breast cancer.^[20]

Homelessness

Main article: Homelessness in Australia

Statistics regarding homelessness within Australia have revealed distinct variances in the experiences of differing genders.

Of people who stay in boarding houses and "sleep rough", statistics were largely skewed towards the male population, 74.8% and 67.6% of the homeless population, respectively.^[21] However, causes of homelessness differed amongst younger and older populations of homeless males. Whilst younger men aged 15–24 reported family breakdowns, older males were more likely to cite financial crisis, or an inability to afford housing.^[22]

Among these sub-groups of the male homeless population, recent migrants to Australia were overrepresented, making up 15% of the homeless population. Within this 15%, 60% of migrants identified as male.^[23]

Retirement

Many women have substantially lower superannuation payouts for retirement than men in Australia.^[1] In 2015-2016, it was reported that the average super payout for an Australian man was $270,710, while the average super payout for an Australian woman was $157,050.^[2] This means, the average Australian woman had $113,660 less superannuation for retirement than the average Australian man.^[2] As a result of many women having fewer superannuation funds than men, it can often lead to women having financial hardships in retirement. Women are more likely to experience poverty when retired and more likely to be reliant and dependent on the Age Pension compared to men.^[2] In 2018, it was reported that 55% of women aged 65 years or more were receiving the Age Pension.^[24]

Occupational segregation

In Australia, occupational segregation is very present in many industries. Occupations are highly segregated by gender which results in male-dominated occupations and female-dominated occupations.^[6] In 2016, it was reported that Construction and Mining industries had the highest representation of men.^[25] 88.3% of workers in construction industries and 86.3% in mining industries were men.^[25] Whereas, it was reported that Health Care and Social Assistance, and Education and Training industries had the highest representation of women.^[25] Women made up 78.3% workers in Health Care and Social Assistance, and Women accounted for 70.9% of Education and Training industries in 2016.^[25]

It is also important to note that in eight industries women made up less than 40% of all workers in 2016.^[25] These industries include Information Media and Telecommunications (37.6%); Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (30.9%); Wholesale Trade (30.1%); Manufacturing (27.3%); Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services (22.4%); Transport, Postal and Warehousing (21.7%); Mining (13.7%); and Construction (11.7%).^[25]

Mental health issues and addiction

Men's mental health outcomes throughout Australia are disproportionate to those experienced by a number of populations in Australia.^{[citation needed]}

Men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women across all Australian states and territories.^[26] This is despite the fact that more women (24.6%) than men (18%) have experienced mental health disorders in the past 12 months.^[27]

Despite this high prevalence of suicide amongst the Australian male population, in 2013 only 27% of men sought out professional mental health services, compared to 40% of women.^[28]

Men also had twice the rate of substance abuse compared to the general population. This rate of substance abuse is also five times more likely amongst those who have previously been incarcerated.^[27]

In attempting to explain these disproportionate figures regarding men's mental health in Australia, a qualitative study into men’s suicide rates identified substantial misinterpretation of men regarding their behaviour and thinking.^[29] The CEO of national mental health charity SANE Australia suggested that, "There's a belief that the very idea of being a man is that you deal with stuff and you don't reach out or connect. Untreated, the problem snowballs. The combination of that and the notion of having to deal with it alone, is the reason behind high suicide rates".^[28]

Societal roles

Carers

Typically, women take on roles of being carers in society. In 2018, it was reported that 68% of primary carers are women, 70% of primary unpaid carers for children are women, and 58% of primary unpaid carers for the elderly and people with a disability or long-term health conditions are women. As a result, women spend 64.4% of their total work day performing unpaid care work, compared to men who spend 36.1% of their total work day performing unpaid care work.This equates to women spending almost twice as many hours performing unpaid care work each day compared to men. Women are also spending almost three times as much time each day caring for children compared to men.^[2]