Australia’s dire record on women’s workforce participation is a “stunning” indictment of the country’s unwillingness to maximise resources and its dismissal of the role women can play in the economy, says Sam Mostyn, president of Chief Executive Women.

As Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on International Women’s Day, noted that female unemployment was at record lows and the gender pay gap had fallen to its lowest level on record, Ms Mostyn said Australia had fallen to 70th in the world for women’s economic participation and opportunity in the global gender gap index, despite occupying the top slot for women’s education. Australia’s ranking on participation was 12th in 2008.