Statistics about gender equality

19/08/2025

Many women and gender diverse people still face violence, harassment and unfair treatment, and are still underrepresented, overworked and underpaid across many domains in Australia. This is especially true for women and gender diverse people who experience racism as well as sexism, have a disability, or are LGBTIQA+. Negative attitudes about gender equality in society continue to be a barrier for people to fully enjoy their rights and freedoms.

Pay gaps and workforce participation

• The national gender pay gap is 21.8%.^[1]
• Workforce participation of migrants and refugees:
  • women: 47%
  • men: 70%^[2]
• In migrant and refugee communities, women are more likely than men to work in low income, low skill and insecure jobs.^[3]

Board representation

• 1 in 4 boards have no women and there is no industry in Australia where the proportion of women board chairs matches the proportion of women working in the industry.^[4]
• Women make up 78% of employees in health care and social assistance but occupy 33% of chair positions.^[5]

Unpaid labour

• Women do more than 9 hours a week in unpaid work and care than men,^[6] and 7 in every 10 primary carers and women.^[7]

Discrimination based on family responsibilities

• After returning to work from parental leave:
  • 45% receive no information about their return-to-work entitlements
  • 44% receive negative comments about working part-time or needing flexible work hours
  • 27% are not provided with appropriate breastfeeding or expressing facilities.^[8]

Sexual harassment in the workplace

• 41% of women and 26% of men have experienced workplace sexual harassment in the past 5 years.^[9]
• 70% of people with intersex variations have experienced sexual harassment in the past 5 years.^[10]

Experiencing violence

• About 20% of adults (3.8 million) have experienced intimate partner or family violence since the age of 15, including:
  • 27% of women (2.7 million)
  • 12% of men (1.1 million)^[11]
• A fear of being criminalised means First Peoples women often do not report domestic and family violence. When First Peoples women go to police or other services for help, they are often misidentified as perpetrators of violence.^[12]
• Over 50% of trans and gender diverse people who responded to a 2018 survey reported that they had been forced or frightened into doing something sexually that they did not want to do.^[13]
• In a 2019 study, 28% of culturally and linguistically diverse trans women reported having experienced sexual assault more than 10 times since age 16.^[14]
• Women with disability in Australia are twice as likely to have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 than women without disability.^[15]

Health

• Women, girls, and gender diverse people often face challenges when getting the right diagnosis and treatment for health issues.^[16]
• A 2021 survey showed almost 1 in 3 women aged 15 to 34 years had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety.^[17]

Gender attitudes and stereotypes

• 1 in 3 Australians hold a negative bias about women's ability to participate fully economically, politically or in education.^[18]
• Expressing gender outside traditional categories can result in experiencing violence, discrimination, stigma and exclusion. This is true for cisgender people as well as for trans and gender diverse people.^[19]

Downloads

• Gender equality fact sheet Word (71 KB)
• Gender equality fact sheet PDF (157 KB)

Suggested citation

Suggested citation: Australian Human Rights Commission (2026) Stats & Facts: Gender Equality.

References

[1] Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (2024). Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard 2023-24, p. 16. The gender pay gap is the difference between the average or median remuneration of men and the average or median remuneration of women, expressed as a percentage of men's remuneration. This data includes base salary, overtime, bonuses, additional payments, and the annualised full time equivalent salaries of casual and part time workers.

[2] Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (n.d.) Gender equality and intersecting forms of diversity. Australian Government, Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Women: 47.3%. Men: 69.5%.

[3] Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (n.d.) Gender equality and intersecting forms of diversity. Australian Government, Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

[4] Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (2023). Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard 2022-23. p. 7. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (2024). Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard 2023-24, p. 24, 39.

[5] Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (2023). Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard 2022-23. p. 31 – 32. Workplace Gender Equality Agency. (2024). Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard 2023-24, p. 24, 39.

[6] Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022, October 7). How Australians Use Their Time.

[7] Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024, July 4). Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings. Primary carers – age and sex.

[8] Potter, R., Foley, K., Richter, S., Cleggett, S., Dollard, M., Parkin, A., Brough, P., & Lushington, K. (2024). National Review: Work Conditions & Discrimination among Pregnant & Parent Workers in Australia Evidence & Insights Report. University of South Australia, pp. 19 – 20. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. 95% of survey respondents were women.

[9] Australian Human Rights Commission. (2022). Time for respect: Fifth national survey on sexual harassment in Australian workplaces,p. 49.

[10] Australian Human Rights Commission. (2022). p. 47. More information about intersex status is available on the Intersex Human Rights Australia website.

[11] Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2023, March 15). Personal Safety, Australia. [Violence: Experiences of violence by an intimate partner or family member since the age of 15(a), 2021-22].

[12] Djirra. (2024, June 14). Yoorrok Justice Commission Social Justice Hearing. From a recent review of women supported in 2023 by Djirra's casework (an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation established by Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention & Legal Service Victoria). Caulfield, L., Malins, P. (2025). Harm in the Name of Safety: Victorian Family Violence Workers' Experiences of Family Violence Policing. Flat Out Inc.

[13] Callander, D., Cook, T., Cornelisse, VJ., Duck-Chong, E., Holt, M., MacGibbon, J., Pony, M., Rosenberg, S., Vlahakis, E., Wiggins, J. (2019). The 2018 Australian trans and gender diverse sexual health survey: Report of findings. The Kirby Institute, UNSW. p 10. Terms used in the report to describe this behaviour were ‘sexual violence and coercion.'

[14] Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS). (2020). Crossing the line: Lived experience of sexual violence among trans women of colour from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia, pp., 131, 181.

[15] Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health. (2021). Research report: Nature and extent of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation against people with disability in Australia, p. 10.

[16] Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2024). Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality. p 72.

[17] Wilkins, R., Vera-Toscano, E., & Botha, F. (2021). The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey: Selected Findings from Waves 1 to 21. Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research & University of Melbourne: Melbourne, p. 125.

[18] United Nations Development Programme. (2023). Gender social norms index. United Nations, Human Development Reports. [Table A1].

[19] Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2024). Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality. p 30. A cisgender person is someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. For more information, access: Australian Human Rights Commission (2026, January 19). Explainer: Trans and gender diverse people’s rights in Australia.