Australia Day awards: Women take out 422 honours

This year’s Australia Day honours contain the highest ever percentage of female recipients, with women taking out 422 of all awards.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek earlier this week announced Labor would introduce a target of 40 per cent female recipients into the Australia Day honours system if it won the federal election. Picture: Hollie Adams

This year’s Australia Day honours contain the highest ever percentage of female recipients, with women taking out 422 — or 37.4 per cent — of all awards.

While the result was widely hailed as progress towards balancing a gender disparity, it came amid a fierce debate about whether targets or quotas should be introduced.

Honours are determined by the Council for the Order of Australia under the auspices of the Governor-General, but it can only consider nominations from the public.

The general division of this year’s Australia Day honours ­received 1526 nominations, of which 964 were for men and 562 for women.

WEB _ Gender_ Divide graphic

There were no nominations in the general division for women in architecture, dentistry, industrial relations, information technology, library and related occupations, mining, surveying and mapping and veterinary science. There was at least one man nominated in every category.

More than half of all awards in the conservation sector went to women and female recipients in the education sector received three awards for every two to men. Female recipients in the local government category also outnumbered men for the first time.

The revelation of this year’s award gender split comes after deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek earlier this week announced Labor would introduce a target of 40 per cent female recipients into the Australia Day honours system if it won the federal election.

“Australian women contribute as much as men, and it’s time our honours system reflects that,” Ms Plibersek writes in the letters section of The Weekend Australian today.

She reiterated the difference between quotas and targets, saying targets “do not undermine merit”.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus voiced her support for such targets, saying women had been “under-represented for too long”.

“Our contribution is overlooked because it is often unpaid work in the community or unseen by those in power,” Ms McManus told The Weekend Australian.

But such targets have faced backlash from many, including Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who said focusing on the gender of recipients was introducing “leftist identity politics” into a matter that should be determined by merit.

“The awards should be based on merit and as soon as you start introducing quotas, whether they be targets or defined quotas, you undermine and devalue the award,” Mr Kelly said.

A spokesman from the Office of the Governor-General said the past decade had seen a significant increase in the number of nominations received and awards made to women.

“In 2009, 502 nominations for women were received (30.4 per cent of all nominations),” the spokesman said.

The spokesman said Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove continue to ­actively encourage more nominations.