Women’s place in society 

July 2010 

This fact sheet provides some facts about the roles of women within Australian society.

Fact Sheet 6

Leadership

Women in Politics

  • Across Australia, there are now more than 250 female parliamentarians, an average 35.9 per cent representation of women in federal, state and territory parliaments.1  
  • National parliament consists of 68 women, 30.1 per cent of all federal parliamentarians.2  
  • Australia has its first female Prime Minister, a female Deputy Opposition Leader, and the first female Governor-General. 
  • In state and territory governments, the Australian Capital Territory holds a rate of representation by women of 41.2 per cent, followed by Queensland with 36.0 per cent.3
  • Of the eight state and territory Premiers or Chief Ministers, two are women.

Women on Australian Government Boards

  • Women represent 33.4 per cent of sitting members on 529 Australian Government boards and bodies.4
  • Women hold 20.3 per cent of Chair and Deputy Chair roles on Australian Government boards.5

Women in the Public Service

  • In 2008-09, there was a total of 93, 683 women in the Australian Public Service (APS), representing 57.8 per cent of the workforce.6
  • Women now hold 37 per cent of all Senior Executive Service positions, an increase of one percentage point from 2006.
  • There are three female departmental heads in the APS.

Women in the Private Sector

  • The percentage of women on ASX 200 boards rose from 8.3 per cent in 2009 to 9.2 per cent in June 2010.  In the first six months of 2010, 24 women were appointed to ASX 200 boards, compared to a total of ten in 2009.7  
  • Only four of the top 200 Australian companies had female Chief Executive Officers in 2008.8
  • Women hold just 10.7 per cent of all executive managerial positions in the private sector.9

Women in local government

  • 51 per cent of local government employees are women, yet only 20 per cent of senior managers are women and only seven per cent of chief executives or general managers are women.10
  • 30 per cent of elected representatives in local government are women.11

Women in the judiciary

  • At the Australian Government level of the judiciary, three out of seven federal High Court Justices are women.12
  • In the Federal Court, eight out of 49 judges are women.13
  • In the Family Court, 12 of the 35 judges of the Family Court (including the federal Family Court of Western Australia) are women, and the Chief Justice of the Federal Family Court is a woman.14
  • Of the 59 Federal Magistrates, 20 are women.15
  • Therefore, 28.6 per cent of judicial officers in the four federal courts are women, an increase of 2.6 percentage points from 2006.

Living arrangements

  • In 2007, lone mothers headed 86 per cent of one-parent families.16
  • Women account for around 52 per cent of people living alone.17 This figure increases with age – in 2002-03 around three quarters of people aged 65 years and over living alone were women.18
  • The number of women receiving Commonwealth Rent Assistance in Australia as at 4 December 2009 was 720,069 (63 per cent), compared to the number of men which was 416,646 (37 per cent).19
  • In 2008, almost a quarter of women receiving Rent Assistance received Parenting Payment – Single, and around a fifth received the Age Pension.20

Family

  • In 2006, almost 58 per cent of women aged 15 years and over were in a registered marriage or de facto relationship.21
  • Just over 12 per cent of women aged 15 and over were divorced or separated in 2006.22
  • In 2006, 35 per cent of women spent 15 hours or more per week on unpaid domestic work, compared to around 12 per cent of men.23
  • Women make up 94 per cent of people receiving the Parenting Payment – Single.24
  • In 2008, 91 per cent of Child Support recipients were women.25
  • Women are more likely than men to volunteer and on average volunteer more hours over a year.  In Australia 36 per cent of women are volunteer compared with 32 per cent of men.26

Indigenous women

  • 2.3 per cent of women identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.27  
  • The median age of death in 2008 was 84 for all Australian women. In comparison, the median age at death for Indigenous women has been estimated as more than 20 years younger, at between 53.5 and 64 years.28
  • Indigenous women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence-related assaults than other Australian females.29
  • Four Indigenous women represent electorates in the Northern Territory and NSW elected its first female Indigenous Minister in 2003. 
  • The first Australian Indigenous woman to be elected to a United Nations body, Ms Megan Davis, will become a member of the UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Health

  • In 2007-08, 48 per cent of women were classified as obese or overweight, compared with 63 per cent of men.30
  • In 2007, women experienced higher rates of 12-month mental disorders than men (22 per cent compared with 18 per cent).31
  • Heart disease and stroke are the two most common causes of death among Australian women.32
  • Overall, in 2006, more than two in three (69 per cent) breast cancers in women were diagnosed in those aged 40 to 69 years, while one in four (25 per cent) were diagnosed in those aged 70 and over.33
  • Almost two million women hold Pension Concession Cards, under various provisions.34
  • The most frequently reported infection among women is Chlamydia: there were 51,388 notifications of Chlamydia in 2007.35
  • More than half (58 per cent) of female victims of homicide were killed as the result of a domestic altercation.36

Caring and disability

  • In 2003, there were 2.5 million carers aged 15 years and over – 16 per cent of this proportion of the population. The proportion of women who were carers (17 per cent) was higher than the proportion of men who were carers (14 per cent).37
  • In 2003, rates of disability for 5-14 year old boys (12.4 per cent) were almost double those for 5-14 year old girls (7.5 per cent). In contrast, women aged 80 years and over had a much higher rate of profound or severe core-activity limitation (52 per cent) than men of the same age (34 per cent).38

Religion

  • In 2006, close to one in five (19 per cent) of all Australians claimed no religious affiliation. Of Australian women, 17 per cent claimed no religion.39
  • While the majority (just over half) of Australian women with a religious affiliation are Christian, increases in Australians who report as Hindu, Buddhist or Islamic have occurred over the last decade.40
  • The 2006 Census found that 14,784 people were employed as ministers of religion in their main job, and that 78 per cent of them were men.41
  • In 2006, religious organisations received unpaid help from 1 million volunteers, of whom 59 per cent were women.42

Sport

  • In 2009, regular participation rates (three times a week or more) in any physical activity for exercise, recreation or sport were higher for females than males (50.6 per cent and 44.8 per cent, respectively).43
  • Coverage of women in sport made up nine per cent of all sports coverage in Australian television news and current affairs media, while seven per cent of non-news programming content on television was devoted to female sport. Male sport, on the other hand, occupied 81 per cent of television news and current affairs reporting, and 86 per cent of non-news programming on television.44
  • Women’s representation on national sporting organisation boards is very poor, with just 25 per cent of board memberships filled by women.45

Office for Women

The Office for Women (OfW) advises the Government on issues and policies affecting women in Australia. Through a range of programs and activities OfW provides a voice for Australian women in three key areas: women's safety, economic wellbeing and place in society.

  1. Australian Parliamentary Library, Composition of Australian Parliaments by Party and Gender, as at 23 June 2010.
  2. Australian Parliamentary Library, Composition of Australian Parliaments by Party and Gender, as at 23 June 2010.
  3. Australian Parliamentary Library, Composition of Australian Parliaments by Party and Gender, as at 23 June 2010.
  4. Office for Women, Women on Australia Government Boards and Bodies 2008-2009 Report.   Office for Women, Canberra.
  5. Office for Women, Women on Australia Government Boards and Bodies 2008-2009 Report.  Office for Women, Canberra.
  6. Figures from the Australian Public Service Statistical Bulletin 2008-09.
  7. Australian Institute of Company Directors, June 2010, The Boardroom Report, Vol 8, Issue 12
  8. Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), 2008, Australian Census of Women in Leadership, EOWA, Canberra.
  9. Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), 2008, Australian Census of Women in Leadership, EOWA, Canberra.
  10. Local Government Managers Australia, 2010, http://www.lgma.org.au/default/2010_year_of_women_in_local_government.
  11. Local Government Managers Australia, 2010,  http://www.lgma.org.au/default/2010_year_of_women_in_local_government.
  12. High Court of Australia, 2010, http://www.hcourt.gov.au/justices_01.html
  13. Federal Court of Australia, 2010, http://www.fedcourt.gov.au/aboutct/jj_seniority.html#finn.htm
  14. Family Court of Australia, 2010, http://www.familycourt.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/FCOA/home/about/Court/Judges/
  15. Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, 2010, http://www.fmc.gov.au/html/magistrates.html
  16. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007, Family Characteristics and Transitions (2006-07), Cat. No. 4442.0, ABS, Canberra.
  17. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007, Family Characteristics and Transitions (2006-07), Cat. No. 4442.0, ABS, Canberra.
  18. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Social Trends, December 2009, Cat. No. 4102.0, ABS, Canberra.   
  19. Office of Housing data extracted 2010.
  20. Rent Assistance 2008-09, Superstar database, 18 September 2008.
  21. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Census Tables, Cat. No. 2068.0, ABS, Canberra.
  22. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Census Tables, Cat. No. 2068.0, ABS, Canberra.
  23. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census Tables, Cat. No. 2068.0, ABS, Canberra.
  24. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, FaHCSIA Facts and Figures, March 2008, FaHCSIA, Canberra.  
  25. Child Support Agency data extracted 30 June 2008.
  26. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006, Voluntary Work, Australia, 2006, Cat. No. 4441.0, ABS, Canberra.
  27. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census Tables, Cat. No. 2068.0, ABS, Canberra.
  28. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008, Deaths Australia 2008, Cat. No. 3302.0, ABS, Canberra.
  29. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2006, Family Violence among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
  30. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009, 2007-08 National Health Survey, Cat. No. 4364.0, ABS, Canberra.
  31. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007, National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, , Cat. No. 4326.0, ABS, Canberra.
  32. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008, Australia’s Health, 2008, Canberra. NB: Australia’s Health 2010 to be released 23 June 2010 at www.aihw.gov.au.
  33. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Breast cancer in Australia: an overview, 2009.  Cancer series no. 50, published 26 October 2009.
  34. Concession Cards 2008-09, Superstar database, 18 September 2008.  
  35. Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships: Wave 1 Summary 2005 (http://www.latrobe.edu.au/alshr/wave1_2005.htm), Table 3, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.
  36. National Homicide Monitoring Program, 2005-06.
  37. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008, A Profile of Carers in Australia, 2008. Cat. No. 4448.0, ABS, Canberra.
  38. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003, Disability, Ageing and Carers Australia: Summary of Findings, 2003, Cat. No. 4430.0, ABS, Canberra.
  39. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009, Year Book Australia 2008, Cat. No. 1301.0, ABS, Canberra.
  40. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009, Year Book Australia 2008, Cat. No. 1301.0, ABS, Canberra.
  41. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009, Year Book Australia 2008, Cat. No. 1301.0, ABS, Canberra.
  42. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009, Year Book Australia 2008, Cat. No. 1301.0, ABS, Canberra.
  43. Australian Sports Commission, 2009, Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey, http://www.ausport.gov.au/information/scors/ERASS/exercise,_recreation_and_sport_survey_past_reports/erass_2009.
  44. Australian Sports Commission, 2009, Towards a Level Playing Field: sport and gender in Australian media, http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/women/research. 
  45. Data reported on www.womenonboards,org.au, from administrative data supplied by the Australian Sports Commission, and supplemented by Women on Boards.

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© Commonwealth of Australia 2009 : Last modified 19/07/2010 4:54 PM