Financy Women's Index 2021 - some wins and some losses
/The Financy Women’s Index wound up 2021 with an improvement of 1.6 per cent, taking women’s economic equality up to 72.3 points. The main drivers for the improvements in 2021 were narrowing gender gaps in unpaid work, employment and improved gender diversity in ASX 200 board positions.
There was a fall during December with the worsening gender pay gap in 2021, down by 2.2 points. Women in Australia now only have to wait 59 years longer from a revised 76 years for economic equality based on the worst-performing area of inequality - unpaid work.
The pandemic seemed like it was going to completely derail women’s financial progress, but some critical barriers have been moved, for example more flexible working arrangements and a reduction in unpaid work.
While unpaid work as a ratings measure improved, it’s still the worst-performing area, with women doing far more unpaid work than men. Across the pandemic this improved, with men taking on more of the unpaid workload, though it remains to be seen if this will continue now that we’re opening back up again. We saw a positive shift in the unpaid workload spread of couples with or without children.
The gender pay gap is another area of weakness, with male wage growth outpacing female wage growth, despite a promising end to 2020 in this area.
