Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. This year’s official UN theme is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step it Up for Gender Equality,” or in its shortened form, “Make it Happen.” But what exactly should we — and our politicians — be making happen first, and how do we go about it?
Here’s a breakdown ofsome of the most pressing issues facing Australian women this year. Here’s hoping that, by next International Women’s Day, we see some serious progress in these areas.
These are just some of the women we admire this International Women’s Day (post continues after video).
1. Tackling violence against women.
You’ve heard the figures: Each week a woman is killed by her partner or someone known to her, and domestic violence is the main cause of homelessness for women and children in Australia. This endemic issue is gaining momentum in the media and in political discourse, but UN Women Australia’s executive officer Julie McKay emphasises that lip service is not enough when it comes to tackling violence against women.
“We each need to contribute to organisations that are investing in supporting women experiencing violence, or working to prevent violence from occurring,” McKay says. “If we are not personally making donations or volunteering our time, then I would say our ‘commitment’ is very limited”.
She also highlights the importance of policy-makers paying close attention to the experiences of survivors, and of parents modelling healthy attitudes towards women.
“We need to listen to the voices of the women who have experienced violence and ensure our legislative and policy responses are designed with their needs considered first and foremost,” she tells Mamamia.
“We [also] need to role model to our sons, what healthy relationships and respect for women look like – which starts with the way we speak about women in our families, at work and in public life.”
2. Sharing unpaid caring responsibilities more equally.
If you’ve ever found yourself scrubbing the toilet while your husband finishes a project at work, this statistic won’t surprise you: Women in Australia still do 66 percent of the unpaid care work, according to last year’s Progress of the World’s Women report. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also shows that men spend on average 1 hour, 36 minutes per day on domestic activities, compared to a whopping 2 hours, 52 minutes for women per day.
So why do these figures matter? McKay explains that “the more hours women spend on unpaid work, the less likely they are to be able to engage in paid work. This perpetuates a vicious cycle in which “women have less economic security than men, lower lifelong earnings and are more likely to face poverty in retirement.”
In short, women work in paid roles less and step out of the workforce more often — factors that contribute to the 19 per cent gender pay gap in Australia, and lead to women retiring with 47 per cent less super than their male peers.
But if women are to step more equally into the (paid) working world, men need to start stepping into the domestic sphere. That’s why challenging gender roles to allow men to spend more time with family is so important, as Annabel Crabb argues.
Expanding paid parental leave schemes to give men equal access to paid leave in the first year of a child’s life is also crucial, McKay says. “Some private sector organisations have taken a lead here – with Aurizon announcing 26 weeks’ paid leave for male staff who are taking time out to allow their partner to return to work,” she explains.
Here’s hoping more companies start to take the lead this year.
3. Equal representation at work.
Women are still under-represented on boards, with just under one in five board directors being women. Women are also relatively scarce at the executive level in ASX-200 companies, last year’s BlackRock Achieving Gender Diversity in Australia: The Ugly, the Bad and the Good report found.
Equal representation at work is not just a human rights issue. The economy benefits when women enter the formal labour force, and having women on boards “delivers new experiences and cultures to a board, all very relevant to producing the sort of outcomes that shareholders should demand,” as Former Australia Competition and Consumer Commission chief Graeme Samuel has explained.
More women in leadership positions will also help address the gender pay disparity, McKay points out. Win.
4. Availability and cost of child care.
Women’s participation in the workforce is still all too often hampered by the inaccessibility of child care. Put simply, many women struggle to get back to work after having kids because child care centres are “either too full or too expensive,” Jo Briskey from parenting advocacy group The Parenthood explains.
At least 55,000 Australian children have already been turned away from child care centres because of a lack of places, the ABS found last year, and the parents of almost a quarter of a million children say they need more child care than they can currently access.
As if that isn’t alarming enough, the Federal Government expects child care fees to be hiked by 13.8 per cent by July 2017, Yahoo! News reports. And while the Federal government claims these fee hikes will slow when the new childcare package comes into effect in July 2017, opponents claim that many families will be at a disadvantage eve after the proposed changes.
We need affordable, accessible child care — and we need it now.
5. Using the election to our advantage.
Unequal pay, expensive child care, under-representation at the executive level… These reports paint a bleak picture. But each us has the power to help drive change when we vote in the upcoming Federal election.
McKay believes this means supporting a party that, among other things, seeks to ensure women are represented in the leadership ranks of private sector organisations and commits to adequately funding domestic violence services (“raising awareness” of violence is not enough, she emphasises). Or perhaps you have your own priorities when it comes to promoting the rights of women: equal access to reproductive health services, homelessness, tackling violence against women in the Asia-Pacific region and the rights of women asylum seekers are just a few of the other issues facing women in our region today.
Whichever way you swing politically, keep gender equality in mind when you cast your ballot this year- and make it happen.
What have we missed? What do you think Australians need to prioritise this International Women’s Day?
Top Comments
All good points but I would like to add one that infuriates me but doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar - why are we funding religion that either treats women as unequal citizens or oppresses them?
It angers me that my tax payer money goes toward schools and hospitals that are run by religions that oppress women on a variety of ways (depending on the religion) but one that virtually all the religions share is that women are in eligible to be leaders in their church/mosque/temple.
We have a lot of outcry about the way gays and people of colour are treated, and very rightly so, but when it comes to religion a man of colour can (and many do) become leaders of their respective religions. Of course gay people aren't usually accepted but in some cases as long as you aren't overtly gay (but everyone secretly knows that you are) it is not a hindrance to become a priest (the Catholic Church would be non existent if all the priests suspected of being gay weren't allowed!)
But if you are a woman you are instantly disqualified for all but a very free religions to be leaders (and the few that do allow it have only recently allowed it but have had a long history of discrimaribg against women).
I recruit people in my job imagine if I said to someone I can't give you the job as manager or CEO because you are a woman, they would very rightly sue me for discrimination, and yet the Catholic Church, most Protestant denominations and Islam all refuse to allow a woman to lead their religion.
I wouldn't care what they do but considering my tax goes to support these religions through funding schools and hospitals it outrages me that no feminist is speaking out about this. It outrages me even more that women continue to attend these religions that oppress women. I realise many women feel shamed into it by their families who insinuate tgey have lack of morals if they leave the religion, but I think it is about time women said to their families "I am leaving this religion because it is immoral the way it oppresses women and treats them as second class citizens. I am doing the ethical thing by not supporting this oppressive religion anymore, and I hope one day you have the moral fibre to come with me."
Time for women to grow a backbone and speak out about this, refuse to support and do business with religions who do not put women on an equal footing with men.
Yep I am with you on this
Thanks :)
I'm sure I'm not the only person reading this thinking 'well there are plenty of female leaders in our church'. This mentality is out of touch with the reality of faith in Jesus. Seek truth not just fuel to your hatred.
Well here's some truth for you, straight from the bible:
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law."
I'm expecting a reply now where you say oh but nobody follows that part of the bible anymore, because it's typical of people defending this oppressive faith to sweep this stuff under the carpet.
As for female leaders, I don't know of any female popes or female ayatollahs. If you are such an expert on this list me all the heads of churches in Australia that are female. For all I know maybe there is one or two then people like you can get all excited about how progressive religion is in this country when you find a few women (amongst a vast sea of men) in a few religions (in a vast sea of religions) that allow women to be head of their church.
Oh and by the way what percentage of women have been the head of the church that you belong to? Perhaps it's time for you to go seek some truth.
You know what I think is another issue worth discussing on Int. Women's Day - the growing perception and representation in the public sphere of stay at home mothers as a negative, or 'unfeminist'/'unempowered', and the elevation of the working mother as the strong woman archetype. This comment isn't at all meant to be inflammatory; I work part time in a successful career and I stay at home the rest of the week with my toddler, and yet 99% of people always comment on how impressive the 'career woman' side of me is and very rarely do they comment on the mothering aspect. In fact, I have found the only people who comment positively on the mothering 'work' are older women, such as my own mother and aunties etc (who were full time working mothers) and now upon reflection say how much they value it and how important it is.
So yes, I agree with everything in this article i.e. shared domestic work and greater access to childcare, but perhaps what women also need is for their choice to valued and respected, irrespective of whether it fits the status quo.