Workplace Gender Equality Agency

Gender equality advocates are calling for more flexibility in the workplace after new research revealed women are more likely to leave management roles than men.

The study from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre shows women are moving into management at a near equal rates to men.

but have resigned at higher rates every year for the past decade.

Last year, 13.8% of women managers left, compared to 12% of men.

CEO at workplace gender equality agency Christine Casley says unequal caring loads and the lack of flexibility for women at key career moments may be behind these figures.

Perhaps if we have a much more open mind to saying a good workplace is one that offers flexible work arrangements, then businesses will be in a much better position to basically realise the investment that they put into people and to tap into that talent potential that sits within their organisations.

The report sets out 12 recommendations for employers, including tracking women's career trajectories and opening clearer pathways into senior roles.

I think we do have, say, for example, a lot of government support for gender equality.

We've got the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

We've got clear legislation in this space.

But I do think seeing this sort of stuff come from Trump or seeing this sort of stuff replicated on social media does, I guess, promote that sort of idea, and it does also give license for people to express these ideas.

Little Penduley, drawing on her barrister's training, argued to colleagues that her reading of the relevant legislation pointed to a conclusion that a minister had broken the law by presiding over a gathering she described as one that "...drew attendance from organizations with links to the IRA and, in her view, posed a threat to public order." New research finds women are leaving management roles at higher rates and identifies pathways to close the leadership gap.

A study based on employer data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency finds that gender parity in Australian workplaces has improved over the past decade, but significant gaps remain.

The findings are in the Gender Equity Insights 2026, Unlocking Australia's Workforce Potential Report, published by the Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre.

The report says more women are entering paid employment and moving into management, but women leave leadership roles at higher rates than men.

All government agencies are required to develop an internal AI use register under the Digital Transformation Authority's Responsible Use of AI in Government policy, which came into force on June fifteen, with a final delivery deadline in December.

The Productivity Commission was the only agency hit with an FOI yet to complete its register, while the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and the Australian Institute of Criminology supplied only draft registers without further detail.

Logged use cases by other agencies range from the development of podcast scripts and advertising videos to tools hunting for internal budget savings, the rehabilitation of a uranium mine, fraud detection, and even the tracking of feral chickens in Norfolk Island National Park.

Larger departments, including Health and Industry and regulators such as the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, ASIC, were more likely to have a wider variety of, uh, more novel AI at work.

2010 and 2022, we had six prime ministers, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd, Turnbull, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison.

The Coalition for Working Women advocated for and made submissions to and then were forced to defend the universal paid parental leave, the creation and powers of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, childcare reform, setting mandatory targets for government boards and a host of other issues.

In 2010 and 2011, I completed the Churchill Fellowship.

I interviewed 63 leaders, which I gather was quite a lot of time, across the UK, France and Norway.

But yes, gender bias is frustrating.

My two organizations ago, the first year that the – Workplace Gender Equality Agency did the gender bias study and they forced organizations that were certain size to publish what their gender pay gap was.

An organization that I worked for had a 30.1% gender pay gap.

And I was like, I'm not surprised because, yeah, that made sense when I worked there.

Yeah.

Now let's chat about bias and how that impacts pay and promotions.

And I want to start with some stats from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

What they say is women are underrepresented in key decision-making roles across all industries in the Australian workforce.

Where the conservatives demand steep reductions in migration, the moderates seem to prefer to talk about accommodating the influx with more housing.

Where conservatives have a natural scepticism of international bodies like the UN and these quasi-judicial administrations like the Human Rights Commission and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the moderates seem to embrace these.

In fact, they empower them.

Now, generally, both factions can agree on the need for lower taxes, less regulation and less union interference.