It’s 55 years since Australia’s Arbitration Commission granted women the right to the same pay for the same work as men. During that time the gap between average female and male pay has narrowed, but still remains somewhere between 12% and 21%.

Today, on International Women’s Day, Lisa Heap raises the prospect of a big leap forward this year.

She details the extensive new powers and responsibilities given to the Fair Work Commission in 2022, and says this is the first year it will really be able to test them out.

If the commission is bold enough, it could move towards eliminating the gender pay gap by the end of the year.

One test will be a case currently before the commission, concerning pay for care workers. Another will be the national wage case, which will be decided by June.

Meanwhile, and even though it’s 2024, political power in Australia still looks very much like a man. Intifar Chowdhury has crunched the numbers from the most recent Australian Electoral Study, finding there are still significant gender gaps in political attitudes and behaviours across generations.

But there is a glimmer of hope, she writes – and perhaps surprisingly, it’s to be found on social media, where young women have been challenging the established political order by getting involved in politics online.

​Contact us here to list your job, or here to list your event, course or podcast.

For sponsorship opportunities, email us here