Australia's workforce is split along gender lines. The new economy offers a chance to fix it.
Katy Gallagher wants to stop jobs in the new economy from being as divided along gender lines as those of the past.
Australia’s workforce is divided sharply along gender lines. Men hold the bulk of jobs in sectors such as construction and investment banking, while the care economy is overwhelmingly an employer of women.
This gender split is causing havoc for the pay gap and economic equality. Tackling the problem sits at the heart of the government’s newly outlined vision of a world without “limiting gender norms”. Achieving this strategy would see men and women more equally take on caring roles (professionally and personally) and cut down stereotypes and barriers splitting the labour market along gender lines.
But Minister for Women Katy Gallagher also wants to make sure the gender segregation currently plaguing the labour force doesn’t set in among newer, growing industries across climate and tech. She doesn’t want to see the same mistakes of the past repeated and women and men miss out on the opportunities the future presents.
Capital Brief asked Gallagher at the National Press Club this week about the lack of women in the pipeline for employers in male-dominated industries and the difficulties this causes them in improving gender outcomes in their own workplaces. Gallagher accepted this was an issue, noting the highly segregated market in Australia has become “worse, not better” in some areas. And it’s more concentrated along gender lines than some other countries.
