Stimulus packages aimed at softening the blow of coronavirus restrictions have disproportionately helped men, even though women have been hardest hit by the crisis.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Analysis from the Australia Institute shows women have borne the brunt of coronavirus job losses.
While women accounted for 47 per cent of employment in March, they lost 55 per cent of the jobs lost in April.
Female full-time employment fell by 2.5 per cent between March and April, compared to 2.2 per cent for men.
And while a larger percentage of men lost part-time jobs (11.3 per cent versus 8 per cent), the actual number of women who lost their jobs was much larger because there are more women who work part-time (224,500 women lost work compared to 149,300 men).
"On those figures we would have to say that women fared much worse than males in the present crisis. Their proportionate decline in employment was 50 per cent higher than for males," report authors David Richardson and Richard Denniss said.
But despite women suffering a disproportionate level of job losses, government stimulus measures appear to advantage men.
Measures such as the JobKeeper scheme exclude casual workers who have been employed for less than 12 months. Women are overrepresented in the casual workforce.
The wage subsidy will also be wound back for childcare workers, with free childcare also to end on July 12.
Other initiatives like the HomeBuilder scheme, which provides grants to encourage new home builds and renovations, are geared at helping keep jobs in the construction industry, where women are underrepresented.
"While infrastructure and housing construction have a role to play in any well designed stimulus package, if it's role is central to the design of a stimulus package then it is important to understand that, per million dollars spent, such a stimulus package will not create many jobs in general and will create barely any jobs for women," the report said.
"Alternatively, stimulus spending focused on health, education and tourism or entertainment will create far more jobs, for both men and women, than spending a similar amount on construction."
Instead, the think tank said government should invest in health and education to create jobs.
"Education and health give the first and second most employment per $1m at 14.9 and 10.2 people respectively," the report said.
As might be expected, given their high female intensity, they also give the biggest direct female employment impact (at 10.6 and 7.9 people respectively) and are well in excess of the third most effective industry at creating jobs for women of 5.2 female jobs per million dollars spent on accommodation and food services."
In comparison, construction creates 0.2 female jobs per $1 million.
