This week the World Economic Forum released their annual Global Gender Gap Report where Australia has dropped 5 ranking places to #44 out of 153 countries.

Australia's disappointing result is right behind Jamaica, Bolivia and Laos, and just ahead of Zambia, Panama and Zimbabwe. This widens our gap with local neighbors New Zealand ranked #6 and the Phillipines ranked #16.

In the first 9 years of data collection from 2006-2014 Australia dropped 9 ranking places from #15 to #24, and in the last 6 years alarmingly Australia has dropped a further 20 places from #24 to #44.

This is partly due to the sharp fall in economic participation and opportunity of 35 ranking places from #14 in 2014 to #49 in 2020. It is not surprising that the Coalition governments' penalty rate cuts, wages stagnation, cuts to social services and austerity policies have  disproportionately impacted badly on women. 

Globally, closing the gender gap in economic participation will take 257 years (compared to 202 years in last year's report). There is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women and even in countries where the ratio is lowest it's still 2:1.

This is simply not good enough, we can't afford to wait to achieve gender equity at the current rate. We need you to take action: become a member, donate or volunteer to be a part of the change.