Women in Australia 2007 

Summary:

• More women than men are being educated at secondary school and at university.
• There are more women than men graduating from university with a Bachelor degree.
• Women's participation rates in many non-traditional areas of study have increased over the last decade.
• There are fewer women than men in Engineering, Information Technology and Architecture and Building courses at universities.
• There are more women than men in Health, Education, and Society and Culture courses at universities.
• The employment prospects of graduates have improved over the last 10 years. However, male graduates are slightly more likely than female graduates to be employed full-time.
• Female graduate starting salaries have increased and are 95.2% of male graduate starting salaries.
• The overall numbers of women enrolled in vocational education and training courses and in apprenticeships and traineeships have grown over the last 10 years.
• Between 1996 and 2005, the number of women in apprenticeships and traineeships has increased four fold.

In this part:

• Secondary education
• Higher education participation
• Higher education award completions
• Graduate work and salaries
• Vocational education and training
• Apprenticeships and traineeships
• Educational attainment
• References

Secondary education

In Australia school attendance is compulsory up to the age of 15 or 16 years. Generally, the first non-compulsory level of education in Australia is the first of the final two years of high school or college (Years 11 and 12).¹

In 2005 there were 1.1 million full-time students in Years 7 to 10. Just over half (51%) were boys. At the same time there were 424,091 students in Years 11 and 12 and the gender imbalance was reversed. Girls comprised 51.8% of all Years 11 and 12 students.²

Figure 5.1 shows that the number of secondary students who continued on to Year 12 has increased between 1995 and 2005. Girls are more likely than boys to continue onto Years 11 and 12. In 2005 the gender difference in the retention rate was just over 11 percentage points (81.0% for girls compared to 69.9% for boys).

Figure 5.1: Apparent retention rates of full-time students from Year 7/8 to Year 12 by gender, 1995 and 2005

Source: Schools, Australia, 2005, ABS Cat. No. 4221.0.

Higher education participation

Over the past 30 years, women's participation in all levels of education has increased to the extent that, currently, slightly more women than men participate in higher education. Figure 5.2 shows the rate of women's participation in higher education since 1996. Women have consistently accounted for the majority of higher education students.³

Figure 5.2: Women's participation in higher education, 1996–2004

Source: Department of Education, Science and Training. Unpublished data & Students: Selected Higher Education Statistics 2000, 2002, 2004.

Data do not include overseas students.

In 2005, women accounted for 54.5% of all higher education students, with 521,328 women enrolled, representing an increase of 1.5% on 2004 levels.⁴

In 2005, there were 8,370 Indigenous higher education students. A total of 5,469 or 65.3% were women.⁴

Fifty-seven percent of students who applied for admission to university in 2006 were women. Women were slightly more successful than men in gaining entry to university, with 58% of female applicants offered places in 2006.⁵

Despite these improvements, women have continued to be under-represented in some areas of study. In the 1990 report, A Fair Chance for All,⁶ the Australian Government identified women as educationally disadvantaged in non-traditional areas of study and set a target for 15% participation by women in Engineering and 40% participation in other non-traditional courses, including Business Studies, Economics, and Science. In 2001, broad field of study categories were replaced by broad field of education categories, with non-traditional areas of study for women identified as Natural and Physical Sciences, Information Technology, Engineering and Related Technologies, Architecture and Building, Agriculture, Environmental and Related Studies, Management and Commerce, and Economics and Econometrics.

With the exception of Information Technology, the targets have been substantially met. More women than men have been commencing Natural and Physical Science courses for the past several years. In 2001, there were 12,468 female compared to 11,534 male commencements in this field. In 2005, commencements in this field increased more for women (13,468) than for men (11,622). In 2005, women accounted for 15.4% of Engineering enrolments, 52.8% in Natural and Physical Sciences, 40.7% in Architecture and Building, 47.8% in Agriculture, Environmental and Related Studies, and 48.8% in Management and Commerce.⁵

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Higher education award completions

Figure 5.3 shows the number of award course completions for all domestic⁷ students from 1996 to 2004. The number of award completions has increased over the reported period for both men and women. Women have consistently completed more courses than men. The proportion of domestic higher education completions by women was 58.1% in 2004.

Figure 5.3: Number of domestic higher education completions by gender, 1996–2004

Source: Department of Education, Science and Training. Selected Higher Education Statistics 2005, Appendix 2.2.

The highest proportion of domestic higher education completions in 2004 was for Bachelor degrees, where female graduates significantly outnumbered males (See Table 5.1). Women completed 49.9% of domestic Master's degrees. Although women's share of Doctoral degrees was 49.4% in 2004, there was a slight tendency for more women than men to complete these degrees by coursework than by research.

Source: Department of Education, Science and Training. Selected Higher Education Statistics 2005, Appendix 2.7.

Figure 5.4 shows the number of completed higher education courses in 2004 for male and female domestic students according to the broad fields of education. Among domestic students, women's completion rates were greater than or nearly equal to men's completion rates for Natural and Physical Sciences courses (55.3%), Agriculture, Environmental and Related Studies (47.6%), and Management and Commerce (48.4%). Women continue to be under-represented among domestic course completions for Engineering (15.7%), Information Technology (25.4%) and Architecture and Building (40.6%). Nearly twice as many women as men completed Society and Culture courses and approximately three times as many women as men completed Health and Education courses.

Figure 5.4: Number of domestic higher education award completions by field of education and gender, 2004

Source: Department of Education, Science and Training. Selected Higher Education Statistics 2005, Appendix 2.7.

Data for Food, hospitality and personal services not shown due to small numbers (10 for men and 13 for women).

Graduate work and salaries

Every year, Graduate Careers Australia conducts the Graduate Destination Survey to determine the work and study destinations and salaries of new Bachelor degree graduates. The results of those surveys for graduate work activities for the years spanning 1997 to 2006 are summarised in Table 5.2.

Relative to 1997, graduate employment figures for 2006 indicate an improvement in employment prospects for female (and male) graduates. Figures for 2005 and 2006 suggest that graduate employment opportunities may be recovering from a gradual decline following a fall from a high point in 2000. For three years running there has been a drop in the percentage of graduates not working while seeking full-time employment.

Between 1997 and 2001, of all graduates who were available for full-time employment, men were more likely than women to be employed full-time. The figures for 2002 to 2004 show a relatively equal proportion of female and male graduates employed full time in the labour force. Since 2005, male graduates were again more likely than female graduates to be employed full-time.

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Source: Graduate Careers Australia, Graduate Destinations (Years 1999 to 2006)

In 2006, the median average starting salary for female graduates was $40,000, up from $39,000 in 2005. In 2006, the overall salary for female graduates was 95.2% of male earnings, down slightly from 97.5% in 2005, but substantially higher than 92.3% of male earnings in 1999 and 92.8% in 2000.⁸

In 2006, women's starting salaries were roughly equal to men's for graduates from Engineering, Physical Sciences, Dentistry, Art and Design, and Agricultural Science. Women's starting salaries were higher than men's in the fields of Optometry (109.6% of male earnings), Pharmacy (104.9% of male earnings), Biological Science (102.6% of male earnings), and Social Work (102.4% of male earnings). Women earned markedly less than men in the fields of Medicine (89.1% of male earnings), Social Sciences (89.5% of male earnings), and Architecture and Building (91.5% of male earnings).

Vocational education and training

The number of Australian women undertaking vocational education and training courses has increased by nearly 27% from 623,800 in 1996 to 789,500 in 2005 (see Figure 5.5). In 2005, women accounted for 48% of all enrolments, up from 46.5% in 1996.

Figure 5.5: Number enrolled in vocational education and training by gender, 1996–2005

Source: NCVER Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics: Table 1, Students by sex, 1995–2005.

There are differences between men and women in chosen fields of study for vocational education and training. In 2005, women dominated enrolments in the fields of Society and Culture; Management and Commerce; Creative Arts; Education; Health; and Food, Hospitality and Personal Services. Enrolment rates were fairly equal for the Natural and Physical Sciences. Men formed the majority of enrolments in the fields of Architecture and Building; Engineering and Related Technologies; Agriculture, Environmental and Related Studies; and Information Technology (Figure 5.6).

Figure 5.6: The number of Vocational Education and Training enrolments by field of education and gender, 2005

Source: NCVER Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics: Table 42, Students by major qualification by course field of education for 2005.

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Apprenticeships and traineeships

Figure 5.7 shows that between December 1996 and December 2005, the number of women in apprenticeships and traineeships has increased four-fold. As at 31 December 2005, women accounted for just over one-third (34.1%) of all apprentices and trainees, up from 20.3% in December 1996.

Figure 5.7: Number of apprentices and trainees in-training by gender, 1996-2005

Large proportions of all new apprenticeships and traineeships for the 12 months to June 2006 were in the Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers (31.7%) and Tradespersons and Related Workers (28.4%) occupational groups (Table 5.3). Most (85.9%) of the new apprentices and trainees in the Tradespersons and Related Workers occupation group were men, whereas 70% of new apprentices and trainees in the Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers were women.

Source: NCVER, National Apprentice and Trainee collection, September 2006 estimates, unpublished data.

Educational attainment

In May 2006, just over 7 million Australians reported having a non-school qualification. This number represented 52.4% of all people aged between 15 and 64 years. There were nearly 3.4 million women who held nonschool qualifications, accounting for 50.4% of all women aged 15–64 years, which is slightly lower than 54.5% of all comparable men who held similar qualifications.⁹

Women's share of non-school educational qualifications has increased from 44.1% in 1996 to 48.3% in May 2006.¹⁰

As at May 2006, Certificate and Bachelor degrees were the most common qualifications held by men and women. Men were more likely to hold a Certificate III/IV and women were most likely to hold a Certificate I/II. More women than men held Bachelor degrees. Women were also more likely than men to have been awarded an Advanced or Graduate Diploma and men were more likely than women to hold a postgraduate degree (Figure 5.8).

Figure 5.8: Level of highest non-school qualification by gender, 2006

Source: Education and Work, May 2006, ABS Cat. No. 6227.0, Table 9.

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References

1. Year Book, Australia 2006, ABS Cat. No. 1301.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
2. Schools, Australia, 2005. ABS Cat. No. 4221.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
3. There were changes in 2001 to the categorisation of courses and to the methods of counting student enrolments. It may not be practical to compare figures prior to 2001 with data after that date.
4. Selected Higher Education Statistics, 2005. Department of Education, Science and Training.
5. Department of Education, Science and Training. Unpublished data.
6. A Fair Chance for All: National and Institutional Planning for Equity in Higher Education: A Discussion Paper. Department of Employment, Education and Training and National Board of Employment, Education and Training, February 1990. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
7. Domestic students excludes overseas students.
8. GradStats, Number 10, December 2005 and Number 11, December 2006.
9. Education and Work, May 2006, ABS Cat. No. 6227.0. Canberra: Australia Bureau of Statistics.
10. Australian Social Trends, 2006, ABS Cat. No. 4102.0 and Education and Work, May 2006, ABS Cat. No. 6227.0. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.