Katy Gallagher | The workplace is starting to look better for women, but we're still not there

It is a long-term blueprint to help navigate how we work, where we work, and what our workplaces will look like. It seeks to set us up - both now and into the future.

Working Future presents a vision for a dynamic and inclusive labour market. Central to our thinking and reflected in the document is that women's participation - and fair go and recognition - in the paid workforce will fuel Australia's economic trajectory.

One of the most fundamental changes in the Australian labour market over the past 50 years is the rise in female workplace participation.

About 62.5 per cent of women participated in the labour market in August 2023, compared with 37 per cent in 1966.

And this is only set to grow.

But we can't expect the Australian economy - and society - to thrive if we are only working to our partial capacity.

We have worked hard in our first year of government to support and improve women's economic equality across Australia, in investments in childcare, aged care and minimum wage increases for female-dominated industries.

But in order to welcome even more women into the workforce, and to support those women who want to work more, women need a fairer go at work and in the unpaid work women do.

The employment white paper sets out some of the changes that need to happen and the opportunities on the road ahead.

At work - we need to close the gender pay gap. There is a persistent gender pay gap - and while it's at its lowest ever at 13 per cent this is still not good enough. The gender pay gap in federal public service is lower - at 5.2 per cent, but again, we should work to remove the gap entirely.

Closing the gender pay gap is key to supporting women's increased economic participation, and to helping close the lifelong gender earnings gap that sees women retire with - on average, $53,000 less than men.

Second, we will not close the gender pay gap unless we address the gender segregated nature of our industries and occupations.

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We have a highly gendered workforce in Australia - around 65 per cent of occupations in shortage on the Skills Priority List have workforces that are over 80 per cent men or women - for example aged care is almost 90 per cent women. And almost all machinery operators are men.

Gender segregation is a major barrier to addressing skills shortages in critical occupations such as aged care, early childhood education and care, teaching, and technicians and trade workers.

This isn't working for men or women or for businesses seeking the best employees.

Women dominate in sectors that pay less, and are less secure. Male dominated sectors have less flexibility and access to paid parental leave.

We want both men and women to lead balanced, happy, fulfilling lives - where both work and family can play a role.

Men should not be excluded from caring and parenting - and women should not be disincentivised from working, or funnelled into lower paid, less secure roles.

We still haven't got the balance right - but the dial is shifting in the right direction.

Governments can play a role in making sure our policies promote a fairer and more equal share of the unpaid caring roles parents perform as we have done with recent changes to the paid parental leave scheme.

But women are still overwhelmingly caring for children, ageing parents, and people with a disability. Women's earning are reduced by an average of 55 per cent in the first five years of parenthood with long-term impacts (aka the motherhood penalty) whilst fathers remain unchanged with no long term impacts.

The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce report will help prioritise future priorities to address areas of economic inequality.

Finally, we know there is no point encouraging more women into the workforce, if the workplace is not safe.

Workplace sexual harassment continues to be an unacceptable feature of Australian workplaces. Women who experience sexual harassment are more likely to switch to jobs that are gender segregated and have lower pay.

Some of the first things we did when the Albanese Labor government came into office last May were to address women's safety at work.

We are implementing all of the recommendations of the Respect@Work report, including through our legislation to introduce a positive duty to prevent sexual harassment.

There have only been three employment white papers since 1945 - and they are significant documents that help to shape the future of our country with a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce.

One which allows for the full participation of both men and women.

The white paper lays out the opportunities for women, for the economy and for the country in closing these gender gaps and ensuring we build the workforce we need for a stronger, fairer and more inclusive economy into the future.