The Hindu Business Line : On the sidelines

Women have been heads of State and at the helm of governments in India, the UK, New Zealand, the Philippines and even in Argentina. Yet, Australian politics and business remains male dominated with disparities in position and pay. Nearly 70 per cent of Australia’s State and federal politicians are male. Irregular and long working hours, lack of childcare and other support systems, and a chauvinistic and aggressive atmosphere in parliament deter women from entering th e political arena.

Wendy Machin, who served in the State parliament of New South Wales from 1985 to 1996, told a local newspaper recently, “You don’t go into politics if you’re a shrinking violet. The culture is blokey, it’s very blokey and you’ve got to find your own way of dealing with that.”

Australia ranks eighth out of 93 countries in the gender empowerment measure (GEM), which reveals whether women take an active part in economic and political life. It is one of the five indicators used by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report. “Clearly, our society still struggles with visualising women in positions of power and authority,” said Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and deputy leader of the Australian Labour Party, in a speech at the Women, Management and Employment Relations Conference in Sydney last August.

“As rapid as change has been for perceptions of women and women’s roles, there is more change needed. It sometimes seems impossible to win no matter what you do,” she said. While Australia has not had a female Prime Minister yet, there have been female premiers of States — Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria — and a chief minister of the Northern Territory. For the first time, the Deputy Leaders of the two leading political parties — Australian Labour Party and Liberal Party of Australia — are women. And earlier this year, Australia appointed its second woman judge to the High Court. The first female justice of the High Court of Australia, Mary Gaudron, was appointed in 1987. She retired in 2003. But this is just about where the impressive list of women in positions of power ends.

The world of business has been a great letdown where few women occupy decision-making positions. Their participation in boardrooms only increased from 8.4 per cent in 2003 to 8.7 per cent in 2006. For the top-200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on February 1, 2006, women held only 8.7 per cent of board directorships.

While few laws discriminate against women, efforts to create equality between women and men have stagnated and may even be declining. “Eighty years ago when the first International Women’s Day rally was held in Sydney, women called for equal pay for equal work. Not only do we still not have this but the gap has widened over the last few years,” says Elizabeth Broderick, the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner. Women working full-time earn 16 per cent less than their male counterparts. The gender pay gap is even greater when part-time earnings are factored in — women earn only 66 per cent of what men earn. Half of all women aged between 45 and 59 years have A$8,000 or less in superannuation.

Australia remains one of only two countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries (OECD) that does not have a legislated right to paid maternity leave. In 2006-2007, there were 472 complaints filed under the Sex Discrimination Act and 87 per cent of them were from women. The most common grounds of complaint were sexual harassment (19 per cent) and pregnancy, including returning to work after maternity leave (17 per cent). Julia believes, “...having women in leadership roles is important because our economy simply can’t afford to turn away half the talent and half the ability of the Australian community. And we cannot in good conscience frustrate half the aspirations.”

Defence services

Women are being targeted in a new marketing campaign aimed at boosting recruitment in defence services. “We seem to send this quiet message to women — come and join us but don’t expect to rise to the top. I think that has to change. All positions should be based on merit and women should have equal opportunity,” says Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. Women currently comprise just 13 per cent of the permanent defence force — despite making up more than half of Australia’s population. Of the 3,500 military personnel currently deployed overseas, 164 are women.

According to a recent survey of 15,000 women conducted by The Australian Women’s Weekly, women still do most of the household chores. As many as 49 per cent women surveyed said they do the cooking, cleaning and shopping. The survey also revealed violence in the home was on the rise. Almost 22 per cent of women said they had been raped by their husband or partner, up from 13 per cent in 1980. Some estimates suggest that one in five women experiences sexual violence and 80 per cent know the perpetrator.

Listening tour

“Violence against women is a serious and pervasive human rights issue in Australia. It has a tremendous personal cost for affected women, as well as social and economic costs for our community, with as many as one-in-three Australian women affected by domestic and family violence,” says Elizabeth. This mother of two is currently taking a Listening Tour around Australia to make women’s voices heard. The Tour is focusing on the three main issues: women’s economic independence, work-family balance across the life cycle, and freedom from discrimination, harassment and violence.

“Globalisation and technology offer new ways of communicating with one another and influencing change. I urge women to capitalise on these advances and use them to push for a better future where women’s concerns are at centre-stage, locally and globally,” she says.

Women’s Feature Service