A Gender equal World
In a gender equal world, all genders will enjoy the same rights, opportunities, responsibilities and protections. We would see:
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Gender Equity is a Human Right
Almost every human rights treaty includes the prohibition of gender discrimination.2
Australia, for example, signed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1983. Upon signing that Convention, Australia introduced the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, which means federal legislation prohibits sex discrimination. Yet almost 40 years on, we do not have gender equity in Australia. Gender parity is the statistical measure used to describe ratios between men and women, or boys and girls, in a given population. In 2021 Australia ranked 50th on the gender parity scale, having dropped 15 places in 4 years! Cambodia ranks 103rd.3
68%
135.6 years
THE FACTS
Women remain underrepresented in leadership positions and in politics worldwide. Only 11.39% of countries (22 out of 193) have a female head of state or government.6 81 countries have never had a woman head of state.7
Only 13 countries in the world (6%) have achieved 50% women in the national cabinet. Australia has only 27%, and Cambodia only 9% women, in the national cabinet.8
There are 35,500 parliament seats worldwide, and women hold only 26.1% of them. Of more than 3,400 ministers worldwide, only 22.6% are women.9
In Australia, 51.32% of the Senate are women, but only 31.3% of the House of Representatives are women, ranking Australia 56th in the world.10 36.9% of state and territory parliamentarians In Australia are women.11
In Cambodia there are 1,646 communes. Less than 18% of commune council seats are held by women, yet they made up 27% of the candidates.12 But in the voting ballot, the names of women are at the bottom.13
Globally female parliamentarians are twice as likely as male parliamentarians to face violence and ill-treatment.14
In Cambodia only one in five lawmakers are women and they are rarely heard in parliament.15
In Australia women are equally represented in Government board positions but hold only 32.1% of positions on Australia’s top 200 boards (the ASX 200).16 Women do not feature prominently as the chairs of company boards. Only 14.6% of chairpersons in Australia are women.17
In Australia women represent 18.3% of all CEOs/head of business, 32.5% of key management personnel, and 33.4% of other executive positions.18 And only 35.4% of full-time business owners are women.19
Only 22% of family business CEOs were female. The same Family Business Survey by KPMG and the University of Adelaide found that female leadership is linked to superior business performance through achieving both business and family goals concurrently.20
Data collected in 95 countries shows women hold only 28% of managerial positions in the workplace.21
For example, globally, women comprise over 75% of the health workforce, yet make up only 28% of health executives.22
In Cambodia women represent 41% of civil servants, but only 24% in decision-making positions.23
The gender pay gap in Australia is 14.2%. Women take home on average $261.50 less than men each week, meaning women have to work an extra 61 days a year to earn the same pay as men!24 If women don’t work an extra 61 days a year more than men, then earning $261.50 less each week, means that from aged 21 to 67 men on average earn $625,508 more than women in their working life.
In Cambodia the gender pay gap for equivalent work is 19%.25 Women in Australia retire with 31% less super than men,26 approximately $113,000 less,27 due to the gender pay gap, and career breaks due to childcare commitments.28
Structural gender pay and workforce patterns drive economic insecurity for women, compounded by the financial impacts of critical life events, such as the loss of employment, a health issue, loss of tenancy, a relationship breakdown or the loss of a partner.29 60% of homeless people in Australia are female.30
Unpaid care work includes all forms of domestic work, such as cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening and home maintenance. It also includes taking care of children, the elderly or a family member with a long term health condition or disability as well as voluntary community work.
Globally girls under 15 years old spend 40% more time than boys their age on household chores every day, that’s 160 million hours a day more.31
Around the world women spend 3.2 times as many hours as men on unpaid care work. Women with children at home spend 31 hours per week on childcare.32
Yet 94.4% of Australian men and women believe ‘a father should be as heavily involved in the care of his children as the mother.’34
A cross-country comparison found that inequalities in unpaid care work translate to inequalities in female and male labour force participation. Women in Australia spend 64.4% of the total work per day in unpaid care work. The more time women spend in unpaid care work, the lower the female workforce participation rate.34
In Australia 6.1% of women provided primary care to a person with a disability, compared to 2.5% of men.35
The lack of gender equality in Cambodia is the result of traditional norms and gender discrimination. Girls are rewarded throughout their childhood for being humble and shy. They’re taught ‘laugh, but don’t laugh too hard, or too loud. Stand, but don’t stand with your feet too wide apart, like a man. Smile, but smile sweetly. Speak, but use a soft voice.’
Social norms dictate that a woman can ride a motorbike, and she can take a female passenger, but she cannot take a male passenger. If there’s a female and a male then the man must drive – even if it’s the woman’s motorbike.
Violence against women and girls is rooted in gender-based discrimination, social norms and gender stereotypes.
Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is one sixth of that among girls.36
More than 200 million women and girls in 31 countries have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM).37
Of the 6.3 million people in forced commercial sexual exploitation, 4.9 million are girls or women.38
Women migrants report high rates of sexual violence in transit to their destination. For example, travelling along Western and Central Mediterranean routes in 2020, 53% of women, compared to 19% of men, reported experiencing or witnessing violence.39
One in three Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence.40 18% of Australian women have experienced sexual violence, since the age of 15.41 Women in Australia are five times more likely to be victims of sexual assault than men are.42
Globally an estimated 245 million women and girls are subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by an intimate partner each year.43 In Australia 17% of women, compared to 6.1% of men, have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a partner.44
In Australia partners are the most common perpetrators of assault-related brain injury in women, 47% of the time, compared to 2% in men.45
In Australia 1 woman is killed every 9 days, and 1 man is killed every 29 days, by a current or previous intimate partner.46 80% of domestic violence homicides are perpetrated by a male against a female. In these homicides perpetrated by a male against a female the male was never the primary victim. Where a female killed their male partner, the female was identified as the primary abuser in just 2 of the cases; most of the time she was in fact the primary victim.47
More than half of all women in Australia have experienced sexual harassment.48 In fact 39% of women, and 26% of men, report experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace in the last 5 years.49 The majority of workplace sexual harassment is perpetrated by men. 93% of female victims and 58% of male victims were harassed by 1 or more male perpetrators.50
HOW DOES FREE TO SHINE HELP Women in Leadership?
Free To Shine is a child protection organisation whose very reason for existing is to prevent school-aged girls being trafficked into the commercial sex industry.
To end gender-based violence we need gender equity. Free To Shine works towards 50% of leadership positions across all sectors being held by women. We model gender equity and invest in the next generation of women leaders by providing leadership training to emerging leaders, and funding university places.
1. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2021, UN Women | Women Count; United Nations | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p19. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
2. Human Rights and Gender. United Nations and The Rule of Law: Thematic Areas, Human Rights and Gender. https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/thematic-areas/human-rights-and-gender/ (accessed 22 October 2021)
3. Global Gender Gap Report 2021 – INSIGHT REPORT MARCH 2021. World Economic Forum. The Global Gender Gap Index 2021 rankings, Table 1.1, p10. Copyright © 2021 by the World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf (accessed 21 October 2021)
4. Ibid,. Table 1.2, p11
5. Ibid,. Figure 1.4, p17
6. Interactive by Rachel B. Vogelstein and Alexandra Bro, ‘Women’s Power Index’, Council on Foreign Relations, Women and Foreign Policy Program, Last updated March 29, 2021. :https://www.cfr.org/article/womens-power-index (accessed 22 October 2021)
7. Global Gender Gap Report 2021 – INSIGHT REPORT MARCH 2021. World Economic Forum. Key findings, p5. Copyright © 2021 by the World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf (accessed 22 October 2021)
8. Interactive by Rachel B. Vogelstein and Alexandra Bro, Women’s Power Index, Council on Foreign Relations, Women and Foreign Policy Program, Last updated March 29, 2021. :https://www.cfr.org/article/womens-power-index (accessed 22 October 2021)
9. Global Gender Gap Report 2021 – INSIGHT REPORT MARCH 2021. World Economic Forum. Key findings, p5. Copyright © 2021 by the World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf (accessed 22 October 2021)
10. IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) 2021. IPU Parline Database: Monthly ranking of women in national parliaments: September 2021. https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking?month=9&year=2021 (accessed 22 October 2021)
11. A. Hough. Composition of Australian parliaments by party and gender: a quick guide. RESEARCH PAPER SERIES, 2020–21 .UPDATED 8 JUNE 2021. Table 1: Composition of Australian parliaments by party and gender (by chamber), as at 8 June 2021. Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services. © Commonwealth of Australia. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22library%2Fprspub%2F3681701%22 (accessed 25 October 2021)
12. H.Robertson, Cambodian elections: The women who lost their land and are now fighting for power, The Guardian, 3 June 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jun/03/dispossessed-land-cambodian-women-enter-politics, (accessed 25 October 2021).
13. S. Narin, ‘Cambodian Women Fight for Grassroots Political Participation’, VOA Cambodia, 30 November 2018. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodian-women-fight-for-grassroots-political-participation/4680080.html, (accessed 25 October 2021)
14. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2021, UN Women | Women Count; United Nations | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p19. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
15. S. Narin. ‘Cambodian Women Fight for Grassroots Political Participation, VOA Cambodia, 30 November 2018. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodian-women-fight-for-grassroots-political-participation/4680080.html, (accessed 25 October 2021)
16. A.Hough. Women in Leadership: International Women’s Day 2021. Posted 05/03/2021. Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2021/March/IWD_2021 (accessed 25 October 2021)
17. Gender workplace statistics at a glance. August 2021. Women in leadership. Australian Government. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/Stats_at_a_glance_AUG2021.pdf (accessed 25 October 2021)
18. Australia’s gender equality scorecard. Key results from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s 2019-20 reporting data November 202’. Workforce composition:Women in leadership: Chart 14: Proportion of women by manager category, p13. Australian Government. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2019-20%20Gender%20Equality%20Scorecard_FINAL.pdf (accessed 25 October 2021)
19. Small Business Counts. December 2020. Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman. © Commonwealth of Australia 2020. p19 https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-11/ASBFEO%20Small%20Business%20Counts%20Dec%202020%20v2_0.pdf (accessed 7 February 2022)
20. Transition, diversity and entrepreneurship: How Australian family businesses are sparking next-generation success. KPMG Australia and University of Adelaide Family Business Report 2021. p10 ©2021 KPMG. https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2021/family-business-survey-2021-report.pdf (accessed 4 November 2021)
21. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2021, UN Women | Women Count; United Nations | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p11. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
22. Ibid,. p5
23. Kingdom of Cambodia. Asian and Pacific Conference on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing +25 Review. ‘Statement of the Royal Government of Cambodia’ By Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Royal Government of Cambodia. Wednesday 27th November 2019, Bangkok. United Nations ESCAP, 2019, p.3, https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Cambodia%20%28B%2B25%29%20Item%202.pdf, (accessed 3 November 2021).
24.Media Release: Equal Pay Day 2021 is 31 August 2021. Australian Government. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. https://www.wgea.gov.au/newsroom/equal-pay-day-media-release (accessed 8 November 2021)
25. The Gender Wage Gap in Cambodia. 2021. © 2021 By the United Nations Development Programme. P4. https://www.kh.undp.org/content/cambodia/en/home/library/the-gender-wage-gap-in-cambodia.html (accessed 7 February 2022)
26. Advisory Street 2020, Australia’s National Saving Update: Beyond 2020, Report to FSC and MLC, Sydney. p15. https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/supplement_to_fsc_submission_.pdf (accessed 15 November 2021)
27. Superannuation account balances by age and gender. October 2017 Ross Clare, Director of Research ASFA Research and Resource Centre. Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Ltd. (October 2017) p5. © ASFA 2017. p13. https://www.superannuation.asn.au/ArticleDocuments/359/1710_Superannuation_account_balances_by_age_and_gender.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y (accessed 15 November 2021)
28. Australia’s National Saving Updated: 2020 and Beyond. Advisory Street 2020, Australia’s National Saving Update: Beyond 2020, Report to FSC and MLC, Sydney) p26. https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/supplement_to_fsc_submission_.pdf (accessed 15 November 2021)
29. Older Women’s Risk of Homelessness: Background Paper. Exploring a growing problem. April 2019. Australian Human Rights Commission.© Australian Human Rights Commission 2019. https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/ahrc_ow_homelessness2019.pdf
30. Specialist homelessness services annual report: 11 December2020. Media Release. Australian Government. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. © Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2021. p3. https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/9e4e2ff0-d30c-419d-abe6-1bb648fc43dd/Specialist-homelessness-services-annual-report.pdf.aspx?inline=true (accessed 15 November 2021)
31. Harnessing the Power of Data for Girls Taking stock and looking ahead to 2030. UNICEF. © United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) p10. https://www.unicef.org/media/65291/file/Harnessing-the-Power-of-Data-for-Girls-Brochure-2016-1-1.pdf (accessed 15 November 2021)
32. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2021, United Nations, UN Women; UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p11 https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
33. Diana Warren, Lixia Qu and Jennifer Baxter. Australian Families. Then and now. How we worked. August 2020. Australian Government. Australian Institute of Family Studies. © Commonwealth of Australia 2020. p5-6. https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/2008_aftn_employment.pdf (accessed 16 November 2021)
34. Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Unpaid care work and the labour market. Insight Paper. Australian Government. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. p4. https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/australian-unpaid-care-work-and-the-labour-market.pdf (accessed 7 February 2022)
35. Gender Indicators Australia. 2020. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Released 15/12/2020. Providing primary care. Data Cube 10, Table 10.4. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/gender-indicators-australia/latest-release (accessed 16 November 2021)
36. UNICEF. Child protection. Child Marriage. https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-marriage
37. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Gender Snapshot 2021. UN Women. United Nations – Department of Social and Economic Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p11. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
38. 8.7 Alliance, ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: forced labour and forced marriage, September 2022’ International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration (IOM) 2022, p35 and 45, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf (accessed 27 September 2022).
39. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Gender Snapshot 2021. UN Women. United Nations – Department of Social and Economic Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p16. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
40.Personal Safety, Australia. Statistics for family, domestic, sexual violence, physical assault, partner emotional abuse, child abuse, sexual harassment, stalking and safety. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Key findings 2016. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release#experience-of-sexual-harassment (accessed 16 November 2021)
41. Family, sexual and domestic violence. Snapshot 16 September 2016. Australian Government. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/family-domestic-and-sexual-violence (accessed 16 November 2021)
42.Gender Indicators Australia. 2020. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Released 15/12/2020. Data Cube 12, Table 12.8 https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/gender-indicators-australia/latest-release (accessed 16 November 2021)
43. Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Gender Snapshot 2021. UN Women. United Nations – Department of Social and Economic Affairs. © UN Women and UN DESA Statistics Division 2021. p10. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2021/Progress-on-the-Sustainable-Development-Goals-The-gender-snapshot-2021-en.pdf. (accessed 7 February 2022)
44.Personal Safety, Australia. Statistics for family, domestic, sexual violence, physical assault, partner emotional abuse, child abuse, sexual harassment, stalking and safety. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Key findings 2016. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release#experience-of-sexual-harassment (accessed 16 November 2021)
45. Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia: continuing the national story. 2019. Australian Government. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. © Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019. p32 https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/b0037b2d-a651-4abf-9f7b-00a85e3de528/aihw-fdv3-FDSV-in-Australia-2019.pdf.aspx?inline=true (accessed 16 November 2021)
46. Ibid,. p50
47. Ibid,. p52
48. Personal Safety, Australia. Statistics for family, domestic, sexual violence, physical assault, partner emotional abuse, child abuse, sexual harassment, stalking and safety. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Key findings 2016. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release#experience-of-sexual-harassment (accessed 16 November 2021)
49. Everyone’s business: Fourth national survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces Australian Human Rights Commission 2018. © Australian Human Rights Commission 2018. p26 https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_WORKPLACE_SH_2018.pdf (accessed 16 November 2021)
50. Ibid,. p33