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Review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 – Submission

Victorian Women’s Trust

The Victorian Women’s Trust wishes to thank the Minister for the Status of Women, the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, for the opportunity to submit a response to the review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 (the EOWW Act).

About the Victorian Women’s Trust

Established in 1985, the Victorian Women’s Trust is an independent body with a mandate to improve conditions for women in practical and lasting ways. We have raised more than $2 million to date from a combination of interest earned and private donations, to fund over 300 projects for Victorian women.

Many of these small grants have addressed barriers women face in the workplace. Some of these projects include:

Review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999

In response to this review of the EOWW Act, we wish to highlight some of the existing barriers for women in the workplace, and include some recommendations on how to deliver better outcomes for Australian women in the workforce. Current barriers that still exist for Australian women in the workforce include (but are not limited to):

The under-representation of women in decision-making workforce positions

Despite Australia seeing an increase women’s representation in some high profile positions (eg. in the appointments of Quentin Bryce as Australia’s Governor-General and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard), in other areas there have been notable declines. Of concern, women’s representation on boards of the top 200 companies listed on the Australian stock exchange has experienced a backward shift, declining from 8.7 per cent in 2006 to 8.3 per cent last year.

At the recent Victorian Premier’s Women’s Summit, writer, journalist and author Anne Summers AO used her keynote address to make the case for a government response to what she calls a ‘Gender Fairness Crisis’, arguing “the federal government has an opportunity to ensure that in the future those opportunities are as entrenched as discrimination currently is. And the way to achieve this is to set numerical targets – with penalties for non-compliance.” (http://annesummers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Victorian-Premiers-Womens-Summit-2009.pdf)

In relation to increasing the number of women in senior management roles and on boards, we support the recent thoughts of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick. Interviewed by ABC Radio’s Fiona Ellis Jones (ABC Economy - 9:15 a.m. Thursday 15th October 2009), Broderick proposed “that publicly listed companies should be required to set a three and five year target for gender equality on company boards and then to measure and monitor progress against this, then start to publicly report that progress.”

While Broderick suggests “if we did that, I would be hopeful that we would start to see a considerable shift”, she then argues, “if we don’t see any shift over a five year period, so in fact if we don’t move forward at all, than I think we do need to have a serious conversation about the imposition of quotas.”

The Victorian Women’s Trust recommends the Government implements suggestions by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, in that we support publicly listed companies being required to set three and five year targets for gender equality on company boards. We would also support new measures for companies in monitoring this progress, and tighter reporting mechanisms to do so.

Failing this, following the five-year period, the Woman’s Trust recommends the Government initiates a widespread community consultation process into examining the introduction of a quota-based system.

The suggestion that the Government would examine the introduction of quotas in five years time should a marked increase in women’s representation on boards not occur, might also encourage publicly listed companies to set and meet new targets as proposed.

Of course, if the Government were to adopt this recommendation, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency would need to play an integral role in assisting companies in setting and meeting targets, providing examples for companies to follow, as well as initiating a wider public education role.

Former Qantas chair Margaret Jackson supported Broderick’s proposal on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program this week (22/10/09, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2009/2720803.htm) suggesting, “let’s set some objectives, and if we don’t get there, let’s set quotas,”

The first female chairman of a top-50 public company, Jackson cited the company experience of Lloyds in the UK, “where you had a chairman who said in five years time I’m going to have 50% of the board being women and within about two and a half years he had a board that had 50% women. So what it says is if you have got the commitment, you can actually find the women directors to appoint”.

Lloyd’s website acknowledges its dedication to women in the workplace on its ‘Equality and Diversity’ page (http://www.lloydstsb.com/about_ltsb/equality_and_diversity_page.asp), noting:

Just as business will need to look to positive examples of how other organisations have achieved more equality for women in the workforce, so too can government lead by example. As Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick noted to the ABC (15/10/2009), “If you look at the ACT and South Australia, here in Australia, they have actually set a quota of 50% of women on government boards and that has been very effective, they have gone from the very low numbers of around 10% up to around 48% over the last three to four years.”

Recommendation: that government boards across Australia, including the public sector, should be implementing 50% targets with female representation.

Unequal Pay, and the accumulation of this

In her ABC interview on 15/10/2009, Elizabeth Broderick noted how Australia is one of a group of countries ranked number one for women’s educational attainment, yet we are ranked 41 for women’s participation in the workforce.

In her speech to the Victorian Premier’s Women’s Summit this year, Anne Summers cited a report which found that “although 56% of law graduates are women, by the time lawyers are 40 (years of age) only 25% of Australia’s practising lawyers are women.”

According to Summers, a reason for this drop-off for women lawyers is the “appalling gap in earnings”. Summers also notes the “higher up you go in an organisation, the worse the pay discrimination is”.

The gap also increases over women’s lifetimes and with the accrual of superannuation. A recent AMP-NATSEM report found that Australian men earn $1 million more on average than women over their working lives. With women on average living longer than men, and earning considerably less over their lifetimes, it is in current and future government’s interests to address this.

Equal pay for equal work is often something that is assumed is taking place, despite a lot of research suggesting otherwise (see for instance www.equalpayday.com.au).

The Women’s Trust also supports the sentiments expressed on pay rates in the submission from the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust:

The current lack of knowledge and public awareness about reasonable pay rates for work that is actually being done by women, hinders each woman’s ability to negotiate an appropriate pay level. Without knowledge, women cannot achieve equality of pay for work of equal value. Promoting available information and conducting additional research is an important role for the Office for Women.

Lack of flexible, family-friendly working arrangements for both women and men

The lack of family-friendly working options do not just hinder women’s experience in the workplace – they also set-back men’s experience. This becomes particularly problematic as society moves to encourage more shared-parenting arrangements.

Both mothers and fathers need supportive work arrangements, free from discrimination so they can share the care of their children. There is little left to prediction when it comes to meeting the diverse range of children’s needs – health appointments, sickness, extra-curricular demands, school holidays, after school care. It is important that parents in paid work are able to enjoy workplace flexibility without the stress of covering up their absence on children care matters. Paid workplaces need to provide genuine flexibility for both parents.

It is hoped the overdue implementation of paid parental leave will significantly assist women’s participation in the workforce. Women’s, and indeed parents’, ability to participate in the workforce is also greatly assisted by access to affordable childcare.

In its submission to this review, the Public Interest Legal Clearing House (PILCH) outlines the ‘Extent of Wrongful Gender Stereotyping in the Employment Sector’, noting the existence of stereotyping in the workforce for both women and men (women viewed as primary carers and nurturers, men stereotyped as breadwinners and as decision-makers).

The Victorian Women’s Trust supports recommendations made by PILCH in their submission to this review, including:

PILCH Recommendation No. 3:

EOWA should address wrongful gender stereotyping and gender-based violence against women as an obstacle to equal opportunity for women in the workplace in its:

PILCH Recommendation No. 4:

The EOWW Act should be amended to explicitly obligate EOWA to take steps to promote the more equal sharing of paid work and caring responsibilities between men and women.

PILCH Recommendation No. 5:

In fulfilling its mandate under the EOWW Act, EOWA should promote the more equal sharing of paid work and caring responsibilities between men and women.

Beyond these measures, there is great scope for the Government and the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency to engage with business and the community on the benefits of introducing more flexible, family-friendly working arrangements.

In 2006, the Victorian Women’s Trust was proud to support the Women’s Information and Referral Exchange (WIRE) ‘Getting the Balance Right’ project in our annual Grants program. The resulting booklet provides easy-to-understand information on the benefits of family friendly work policies for women in small NGOs, providing real examples for others to follow.

In the lead-up to the 2007 federal election, the Women’s Trust joined WIRE and other women’s organisation representatives in lobbying the major federal political parties on the issue. We were delighted to hear Julia Gillard’s announcement that ideas from this project were to be adopted as part of Labor’s ‘Fresh Ideas for Work and Family’ policy.

Some of these work and family policies have since been announced and are being implemented, which we commend the Government for, but we do believe there is still much work to be done in changing business attitudes to encompass more flexible arrangements. As Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick explained to ABC Radio on 15/10/2009, “there are still many workplaces, who when placed with a request for a flexible work arrangement or to do something quite differently still find it very hard to think about what that might look like and part of that is I think is that we are in new territory here.”

Broderick also noted the subsequent “huge leakage of female talent in this country which has a significant cost to our economy and has a significant cost to business and we need to start to address this issue.”

Just as WIRE produced a booklet providing real examples of family-friendly policies at work in small non-government NGOs, so too could other types of businesses benefit from learning from others who are already ‘getting the balance right’.

The Women’s Trust recommends the Government and EOWW Agency initiates a major community (and business) education campaign helping companies and agencies realise the great benefits in employing and retaining women in the workforce by implementing more family-friendly work policies.

Submitted on behalf of:

Sarah Capper
Policy Officer
Victorian Women's Trust
1/388 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9642 0422

The Victorian Women’s Trust would be more than happy to talk further about the ideas expressed in this response.

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