This year we’ve worked with several men-dominated organisations where improving gender balance at all levels and across different occupations has been a priority.
We’ve developed strategies to encourage women in field roles, to attract women to apprenticeship programs, to build leadership pipelines, to expand recruitment channels, and to cluster women in teams to reduce the harassment and exclusionary risks faced by women ‘only’s’.
We’ve brought lingering gender stereotypes and myths to the fore – like women will leave for family reasons, or ‘only people from minority groups or females get the opportunities in this company’ – so they can be challenged.
We’ve hardwired this through policy recommendations that remove parental leave carer labels, that encourage more men to take parental leave and utilise flexible work arrangements – to shake up stereotypes associating women with caring and men with paid work.
At the same time, we’re worked with women-dominated organisations in healthcare and identified practical strategies to attract more men.
We have to do more of this.
Why? Because Australian industries and organisations remain highly gender segregated, according to the Gender Equality Scorecard 2024-25 just published by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
More than half the workforce is employed in an industry dominated by one gender. Progress to improve on segregation across industries and occupations has stalled in recent years.
The WGEA says we must keep up the focus on ensuring safety, improving gender balance, and dismantling stereotypes.
The WGEA Scorecard is based on data from 8,239 employers covering the workplaces of more than 5 million employees.
