Australia’s biggest companies still fall short on gender equality

A new comparison of Australia’s largest listed companies reveals a persistent gap between gender equality commitments and meaningful action. Dr David Birchall, Kathryn Fearnley, Andrea Abreu and Taniya Thomas report.

AUSTRALIA IS RIGHTEOUSLY proud of its gender equality. It ranks 13th in the world in the World Economic Forum’s gender equality rankings. Global Gender Gap Index and we put it into practice in 2012 Workplace Gender Equality Act.

In March 2024, the Albanian Government issued a declaration. National Strategy to Achieve Gender Equality and publishes an annual report every year since 2023. Status of Women’s Report Card To provide a snapshot of Australia’s progress towards gender equality across a range of categories, including economic outcomes, education, health, safety, housing and gender norms.

Gender equality in Australian industry is vital if we are to achieve national gender equality. Industry has a significant say in economic outcomes, and gender equality in industry also includes tackling workplace violence and harassment, leadership opportunities and the protection of women in global supply chains.

For this reason Access to Macquarie University Business and Human Rights Justice Lab It decided to launch a project comparing the gender equality performance of 20 industry-leading companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) across four sectors. we used World Benchmarking Alliance‘s Gender Comparison Methodology and focused on key areas such as gender-responsive governance, representation, violence and harassment.

The companies were drawn from Australia’s four most economically important sectors: retail and consumer services; pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and life sciences; media and entertainment; metals and mining.

Findings

The report identifies systemic failures on gender equality at both corporate and government levels, but also finds room for hope and suggests improvements. None of the 20 companies fully met international gender equality standards; the top performing company achieved just over half the current score.

While nine out of ten companies have committed to gender equality, often through diversity policies or gender equality reports, far fewer have backed up their commitments with measurable, time-bound goals or actionable plans.

This gap between words and actions was a theme running throughout the report. Companies generally said the right things, but were more reluctant to set concrete goals or policies to achieve specific results.

Governance and strategy emerged as the weakest area overall, with an average of just 2.35 out of a possible eight points across all sectors. Only one company included women as part of its risk identification and assessment process, and only two companies identified and prioritized gender-related human rights impacts as significant risks.

Gender audits and key performance indicators of workforce gender targets were rare, and almost no companies disclosed gender-disaggregated workforce data by function or role; it’s a gap that masks inequality and limits external accountability.

Information on gender equality in supply chains was very scarce. This is a critical gap because supply chains span the globe and can include areas with high levels of gender-based violence, discrimination or lack of regulation. This poses the risk that goods produced by Australian companies may contain human rights violations during the production process, despite advances in domestic legislation.

Companies have largely abdicated compliance responsibility to their suppliers and, at best, often offer guidance to suppliers rather than meaningful oversight. No companies provided evidence of gender equality targets in their supply chains, and none demonstrated that gender-related human rights issues in their supply chains were identified and remedied.

The report found that women are significantly underrepresented in executive leadership, with higher levels of female representation in non-executive and supporting roles. This pattern has persisted even in industries such as retail and media, where women make up a significant portion of the overall workforce, pointing to structural barriers to progress.

Companies in industries that face greater public scrutiny, such as mining and media, performed relatively stronger across most metrics; This suggests that stakeholder pressure and transparency obligations play a meaningful role in driving improvement.

Suggestions

Perhaps our most fundamental finding is that compliance is strongest where compliance is a legal obligation. Each company received points for having a mechanism that allows employees to file complaints without fear of retaliation; This is a direct result of mandatory whistleblower protections under the law. Chapter 1317AI between Companies Act 2001 (Cth).

Many companies have extended these protections to members of the public. This leads to our recommendation that the government should make certain obligations mandatory if it wants to improve gender equality performance in business.

To address gender-based violence and inequality in supply chains, the Australian Government should introduce mandatory human rights due diligence from a specific gender perspective across global supply chains. Workplace Gender Equality Act Covering more businesses and offering more incentives to ensure gender-based labor rights are supported in the workplace.

We call on companies to comply with the three-step framework. Gender Dimensions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights — includes gender-sensitive assessments, gender-transformative measures, and gender-transformative solutions.

Additional recommendations include prioritizing transparency; strengthening stakeholder participation, especially investors and civil society; Improving access to remedies for those affected by the overseas activities of Australian companies; and businesses need to adopt defined, measurable and time-limited goals.

Overall, there were a lot of positive signs, but also a lot of room for improvement. We urge all Australian businesses, large and small, to consider the gender implications of their practices, monitor and track gender metrics, and consider implementing best practice guidance such as: Gender Dimensions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.