Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Calls for Getting Progress Back to Track - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Elizabeth Broderick, the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, sees stagnation in national workplace reform.

• Following a national listening tour that featured businesses as well as citizens, she writes, “While there were some pockets of innovation, many businesses were only just starting to experiment with policies such as paid parental leave schemes and workplace flexibility.”

• Australia lags significantly behind leading international competitors in utilizing its working population, Broderick adds. Australia is ranked first by the World Economic Forum for education of women (60% of undergraduates are women). But it is 41st in female workforce participation. The UK, New Zealand and Canada are ahead of Australia in the latter category.

• Broderick fears women will suffer more than men in the global economic slowdown because many of the worst-hit industries, such as retail and hospitality, feature more female than male employees.

• The government must finance a guaranteed paid parental leave programme while preventing discrimination for those who must tend to family responsibilities. “These are inexpensive reforms that will maximise the ability for both men and women to retain workforce attachment into the future.”

• Companies must adopt workplace flexibility as well as redesign jobs.

• Broderick concludes, “Ironically, the current economic crisis, as tough as it is going to be, could provide us with our best chance yet to shift Australian workplace cultures and practices and, in so doing, improve gender equality.”

Elizabeth Broderick’s column