Women in management in Australia

Informed by substantial and compelling evidence, Rodgers (2015) recently pointed out that it would take more than a couple of hundred years for Australian women to gain gender equality in the workforce; Rodgers’s pessimistic forecast is consistent with that of the International Labor Organization (ILO, 2015a). Using the latest data, from 2011 to 2015, this chapter gives an overall picture of the presence of women in management and the professions in Australia, focusing on women’s educational pursuits; their labor force participation; the proportion of women in management, on boards and in parliament; the gender pay gap; and initiatives in place to address this imbalance. A discussion of these issues enables an assessment of the progress of women in the period since Wood’s analysis, given in the 2011 version of this handbook, and to make international comparisons.