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The tapering of major COVID stimuli last year caused a slowdown in the Australian economy, halting women’s financial progress for the first time in a decade.
The Financy Women’s Index (FWX) headline score fell by 0.1 points to 76.2 points out of 100 over the December 2022 quarter, rounding off the year just below the 76.3 points from the year before. It’s the first time in 10 years the index has ended the year in the negative.
The index, produced by software firm Financy, analyses social-impact-driven data to measure the economic progress of women and timeframes to gender equality in Australia.
The FWX stated that weaknesses in the jobs market under higher interest rates caused the decline and halted progress in closing the gender gap in employment.
Independent Economist Nicki Hutley said that while the decline was marginal, even the smallest backward step was a “large policy failure”.
“The fact that women didn’t benefit as much as men during 2022 from the economic stimulus from COVID is an indictment of those specific policies as well as broader policies aimed at gender equality,” said Ms Hutley.
The Australian Federal Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Amendment Bill for 2023 confirms the need to close gender pay gaps across Australian companies with over 100 employees.
According to Financy CEO Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, there is still much to be done to combat the gender biases that act as barriers to economic gender equality.
Ms Hartge-Hazelman believes there needs to be further attention to utilising tech software to improve performance on diversity, equity and inclusion across Australian companies.
“Financy will launch a new software in May, called the Impacter, which will help small, medium and large organisations take greater action towards an equality effect by enabling measurement, tracking, actions and accountability on diversity, equity and inclusion,” Ms Hartge-Hazelman said.
The FWX underemployment sub-index in the December 2021 quarter fell to 67.1 points from 69.2 points as male underemployment improved while female underemployment worsened.
The employment sub-index fell to 71.5 points from 71.9 points in the September quarter.
According to the FWX, the number of years until Australia reaches gender pay equality increased to 24 years from 22 years in 2021.
However, the FWX noted that more women were being recognised for unpaid work and for taking part in more leadership roles.
The gender pay gap category and education and expected earnings category each saw a 0.5-point improvement over the last year, indicating women’s education levels and potential earnings were advancing.
AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said it was “good news” that progress had been made across areas like board representation, the gender pay gap and unpaid work.
“The pandemic appears to have accelerated behavioural change on the part of men in terms of contributing to family and home-related unpaid work, which is critical to freeing up women to pursue career-related endeavours,” Dr Oliver said.
“The backsliding in the FWX through 2022 is disappointing particularly as it comes after years of a rising trend. Hopefully, it’s just a temporary setback associated with an economic dislocation.
“It’s also clear that to achieve financial equality we have a long way to go in terms of study and career choices girls take early in life.”
FWX has set gender equality time frame targets to monitor the Federal Government’s pledge to develop a National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality.
Target areas include superannuation payments to be included as part of Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave and unpaid leave portions.
The FWX is also targeting investment in schools and university-led programs to educate students on the financial implications of gender stereotypes and continued investment in media campaigns that seek to educate people on the benefits of breaking down gender stereotypes in unpaid work.
Further, the targets include mandatory gender-balanced targets of 40 per cent minimum for female board directors across all listed companies by 2030, with government-incentivised programs that build the actual number of board-ready women in Australia.
Finally, the FWX seeks for businesses to engage with genuine and authenticated female-owned and led businesses.
