Gender Equity in the workplace – Equality vs Equity

This material is designed and intended to provide general information in summary form on legal topics, current at the time of publication, for general informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

The difference between equality and equity can be tricky to understand, especially when the two are commonly used interchangeably. However, if a business wants to work towards a truly equal workplace, it is important for the business to grapple with the concept of equity.

Gender inequality in Australia

There is still a high level of gender inequality in Australia. The gender pay gap is 21.8%,[1] meaning that for every $1 men earn, women earn 78 cents, on average. This pay gap reflects gender inequalities that exist in every industry and most workplaces, where women are often overlooked for secure, well-paid jobs, especially in leadership. The pay gap is also because work that was traditionally done by women, like early childhood education, is undervalued and low paid. Australia’s industries are highly segregated by gender compared to other similar countries. For example, 86.5% of employees in the construction industry are male.[2]

Even in female-dominated industries, men hold the majority of leadership positions.[3] Inequalities also play out in the home. Women are almost three times more likely than men to experience violence by a current or former partner.[4] 78% of one parent families are single mothers.[5] Despite working similar hours to men, women continue to bear the majority of the caring load and household duties – nearly double that of men.[6]

What is the difference between Equality and Equity?

Equality is applying the same rules to everyone and dividing resources evenly (everyone gets the same).

Equity, on the other hand, takes into account different needs and addresses the ongoing impacts of past inequality. If businesses don’t consider equity, they risk making women in the workplace feel excluded, ignored, or undervalued.

Here are three examples to explain the concept further:

Example 1 – hours of work

Some employers only offer roles that are full-time 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. Equal opportunity for any gender, right? Rigid work hours can be harder to access for women, who still undertake the majority of home care taking responsibilities. By offering more flexibility, an employer could make it easier for women to take up job opportunities, while still juggling family responsibilities. Flexibility benefits all workers and builds greater equity.

Example 2 – the gender pay gap

In 1969, workers in Australia won the right to equal pay for equal work. Since then it has been a legal requirement for employees to be paid the same for the same work, regardless of their gender. This is an example of gender equality. However, there is still a significant overall gender pay gap, across the whole workforce, because of gender industry segregation and unique barriers for women in accessing high-paid roles. To truly address the gender pay gap, we need to take an equity approach instead of pretending these barriers do not exist.

Example 3 – personal protective equipment (PPE)

For people who work in certain industries, it is essential to wear personal protective equipment (PPE), such as hard hats, gloves, masks and safety boots. An equality approach would be for all workers to have access to the exact same “one size fits all” PPE. However traditional PPE has been designed for male bodies and can be ill-fitting for women. This can be unsafe, uncomfortable, and can make women feel unwelcome in the industry. Employers can apply an equity approach by ensuring they offer PPE in a range of sizes and shapes to all workers, regardless of gender, size, culture or ability.

Employers have legal obligations for gender equity in the workplace

As an employer you have legal obligations to work towards gender equity in the workplace.

These include:

Anti-discrimination: Businesses must not discriminate against employees based on their gender. This includes indirect discrimination, such as when a policy applies equally to everyone but in practice it unreasonably disadvantages people because of their gender.

Vicarious liability: Businesses must also take all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination based on sex or gender in their business. If they do not take all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination, they can be vicariously liable for the actions of their employees and agents.7 For example, a group of workers are behaving in a sexist way towards another worker, the business may be liable for the actions of the group of worker.

Equal pay for equal work: Men and women workers must be paid the same if they are doing work of equal or comparable value. Through the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), the Fair Work Commission has the power to make an equal renumeration order considering a number of factors, including whether the work has historically been undervalued on the basis of gender.

Positive duty to prevent workplace sexual harassment: Under the Sex Discrimination act 1984 (Cth), employers must take reasonable steps to eliminate, as far as possible,

Sex discrimination,

Sexual harassment,

Sex based harassment,

Behaviours that create a hostile workplace environment on the ground of sex, and

Related acts of victimisation.

Gender equality reporting: If you have 100 or more employees, you must have a policy or strategy to support gender equality, and you must also lodge a gender equality report each year to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) (Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012). Some larger organisations have additional obligations as well.

What can you do as an employer?

There are many steps you can take as a business to improve gender equity and comply with your legal obligations. Some great first steps would be to:

Review the gender makeup of your workforce, including in management roles, and consider any inequities,

Consult with your workers about what they need and any issues they’re experiencing,

Create a gender equity plan,

Provide opportunities for part-time and flexible working hours,

Provide pathways for pay progression and/or promotions for people in part-time and or flexible working hour roles,

Conduct risk management processes to prevent workplace sexual harassment, and

Ensure that you and your workforce undertake regular training in gender equity and prevention of workplace sexual harassment

The Working Women’s Centre provides training for small, medium, and large organisations across all industries. If your business has less than 200 employees, you may be eligible to access Working Women’s Centre training opportunities for free. Make an online enquiry or contact the Working Women’s Centre on (08) 8410 6499.

[1] Workplace Gender Equality Agency, ‘WGEA Gender Equality Scorecard 2023-24′ (20 November 2024) <https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/australias-gender-equality-scorecard>.

[2] Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, A 10-Year Plan to Unleash the Full Capacity and Contribution of Women to the Australian Economy (Final Report, 23 October 2023) 16 < https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/womens-economic-equality-taskforce-final-report.pdf>.