Women in Australia under-represented in workplace leadership

This was according to a report by Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), which also showed that less than 50% of Australian women across every age range are working full-time.

With 90% of higher-paid management positions being reserved for the full-time workforce, women are less likely to escalate into management ranks, being twice as likely to be working in a casual or part-time capacity than men. 

WGEA director Mary Wooldridge said, “Too many employers are missing a huge talent pool by not encouraging and enabling women to work additional hours or in the managerial ranks. 

“With effective policies, workplaces can both enable women to work full-time if they chose to and make higher-paid managerial roles more accessible for those who work part-time.” 

When it comes to the gender pay gap, the report reveals that the pay gap favours men in every age group, consistently growing from 2.5% for under 24-year-olds, to over 30% for employees aged 45-64. 

Should the current trends continue, the World Economic Forum predicts that it will take 135.6 years to close the global gender pay gap. 

READ: Australia’s Queensland state scraps “maternity leave” term

The report WGEA revealed that women’s movement away from full-time work largely occurs from age 35 onwards, and should this trend continue, millennial women will earn just 70% of men’s earnings by age 45, according to Digital Nation.