Honeypot has released a study revealing the gender gap in managerial roles, with women accounting for less than 50 per cent of senior positions in every nation surveyed.
Using figures from the World Economic Forum, the study shows the percentage of women in senior or managerial positions, revealing which of the 41 countries surveyed offer the best and worst progression and promotional opportunities for women.
Latvia has the highest percentage of women in managerial positions at 44.4 per cent, followed by the US (43.5 per cent) and Hungary (40.5 per cent). South Korea has the smallest percentage at 10.7 per cent, followed by Japan (11.5 per cent) and Turkey (13 per cent).
Australia placed 11th with 36.3 per cent.
“With over 10,000 UK firms providing details of their gender pay gap last week, one of the most striking outcomes has been the lack of women in senior roles, with just 1 in 3 firms reporting a majority of women among their top earners,” Emma Tracey, Co-Founder at Honeypot, said. “This result is similarly reflected in our study, with women on average accounting for 31 per cent of senior or managerial positions. It’s incredibly important to include this aspect of gender disparity when discussing the pay gap, because as long as men account for the majority of top earners, women will never be able to close the gap."
“This could be due in part to maternity-related disadvantages for women, who are often overlooked for promotions or return to underskilled jobs post-childbirth. Moving forwards, governments could look to the example of countries such as Sweden whose progressive maternity and paternity laws, as well as subsidized child care, has increased their gender balance in the workplace.”
Whilst progress has been made in recent years, the ADF still struggles with an overall underrepresentation of women, which translates into a disproportionate absence of women in senior roles.
As of June 2016, Navy has 19.1 per cent female participation, an increase from 18.5 per cent in 2012. In the same time frame, female representation in Army increased from 10.1 per cent to 12.1 per cent, and in Air Force from 16.9 per cent to 19.2 per cent, according to the latest Women in Defence Report.
Each military service sets female recruitment targets annually.
The latest Pathways to Change report (from 2011) notes that females make up roughly 40 per cent of the Defence APS workforce, below the wider APS average of 57 per cent.
ADM’s inaugural Women in Defence Awards seek to focus on the successes of women working in Defence, the APS, and defence business, in order to highlight what is being done well in the sector’s efforts to address the gender imbalance.
Interest in the awards has been very positive. Over 100 nominations were received across six categories.
The Hall of Fame award and keynote speech will be presented by WIDA’s patron, Minister for Defence Marise Payne, in July.