Susie O’Brien on workplace equality: We all benefit if women are given a fair go
THE boys’ club has had its day at all levels of society and it’s time women were treated equally and, at last, given a fair go, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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SHOULD female and male athletes get equal pay for doing the same job? Yes, of course.
Should a woman be hired for a job just because she is a female in a male-dominated area? Yes, as long as she’s qualified to do the work.
Should state political parties be forced to put a set number of females up for election?
Yes. Women make up half the population, so why don’t they make up half the parliament?
Minister for Women Fiona Richardson wants a “gender lens” applied to state government decision-making, funding and employment. I think it’s a great idea. For the past few months she has been travelling around the state getting feedback on her Gender Equality Strategy. On Wednesday she will be in Bendigo.
One of the strategy’s more controversial aspects is encouraging sporting bodies to pay men and women equally. There’s also talk of quotas for women in leadership positions in parliament, government departments and boards and even private businesses.
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I think it’s about time the State Government got serious on these issues. The government spends billions and it’s only reasonable that it asks companies and individuals it works with to make things fairer for women. Its $50 billion annual revenue stream should buy quite a lot of clout.
There is no doubt there is a huge gap in the pay, representation and participation of women versus men in sport. The Gender Equality Strategy issues paper talks of the need to “encourage professional sporting organisations to remunerate sportswomen to the same level as their male counterparts”. This is a major issue that flows right down from the elite level to grassroots girls’ sports.
For instance, the women’s rugby sevens team, who won gold in Rio, each earned about $55,000 compared with the men’s team’s $90,000 each.
Last year the Matildas, our women’s national soccer team, were being paid $500 for each standard international game, while three years ago the male Socceroos were earning $6500 per standard game. In September last year, Socceroos star Tim Cahill earned more in one day ($27,000) than the Matildas’ co-captain in a year.
Similarly, players in the new women’s AFL competition will earn thousands, not millions like some of their male peers.
Obviously, the disparity comes from loadings from lucrative TV and digital rights for mens’ games, but all players should at least be paid the same base salaries.
Let’s hope the major sporting bodies jump on board with the State Government to level the playing field.
Women’s cultural activities and sporting clubs also often receive less investment from government and the private sector than those of men. A lot more needs to be done to ensure girls have equal access to sporting facilities: in some cases girls don’t put their hand up to join mixed teams simply because of a lack of female changing facilities.
That is definitely an issue the State Government can, and should, influence. In other industries the gap is less, but it is still a major concern. There is simply no reason why women continue to earn 14 per cent less for doing the same job as their male peers. This gap increases as women age, peaking around 30.4 per cent at retirement and has an impact on the lesser amount of superannuation women earn as well.
Despite many decades of feminism, men also continue to hold positions of power over women. In 2015, only one in five ASX 200 directorships was held by a woman. In the Victorian public service, only one third of executive positions are held by women, despite the fact that women make up two-thirds of workers overall.
Women who are from non-Anglo backgrounds, those with a disability and those who are economically disadvantaged are even more under-represented.
Factors that can make a difference include more leadership courses, training and networking for women and quotas for board positions. The Gender Equality Strategy suggests any organisation or company tendering for government contracts or receiving state funding should have a gender equity audit and publicly account for what they’re doing to promote and support women. The issues paper talks of a need to implement “gender conscious” recruitment, selection and promotion, engage in sponsorship of women and adopt a more “gender inclusive definition of leadership”.
It’s often said that at the current pace of change it will take us 177 years to reach gender equality in the workplace, so continuing in the same way should not be an option.
I am sure there will be those who will be agitated by the thought of such positive discrimination. But it’s not about giving women an unfair advantage, it’s about removing the advantages men have had over women for years.
Otherwise we are admitting that men are better than women just because they are males, which is simply ridiculous. Isn’t it time to bust open the boys’ club and give women a fair go?
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist