WGEA commissioned an evaluation to understand the Agency’s effectiveness and impact on driving accelerated change on workplace gender equality following recent legislative reforms to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.
This evaluation is an opportunity for WGEA to track progress and ensure our initiatives and actions are effective. In undertaking this evaluation, WGEA is using data and evidence – the same way we ask employers to improve. This will allow us to better target our work so that we can most effectively help employers to accelerate progress on gender equality.
The evaluation focuses on the implementation of 4 of the legislative reforms:
- Reform 1: a requirement for employers to share their Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report with their Board
- Reform 2: WGEA’s publication of employer gender pay gaps
- Reform 3: a new gender equality standard for employers who directly employ 500 or more employees to have a policy or strategy against each of the 6 gender equality indicators
- Reform 4: a requirement for employers who directly employ 500 or more employees to select and meet, or make progress against gender equality targets. (This reform was not legislated before the delivery of the baseline report.)
The evaluation began in 2024 and will continue over several phases.
In the first phase the evaluation team produced 2 reports. One outlines the evaluation framework and the other captures baseline findings.
Evaluation framework
The evaluation framework sets out the design of the evaluation.
It developed a theory of change, which considers WGEA’s role in driving an accelerated pace of change towards gender equality and the influence of the reforms on WGEA’s role. It outlines how employers may progress along a pathway of understanding what they need to do to make progress towards gender equality.
It also outlines the questions the evaluation will ask and the data sources it will use to answer them.
Baseline report
The baseline report considers the effectiveness of WGEA’s key levers for change in driving accelerated progress towards gender equality in workplaces. These levers include capacity building, education and research, communications and campaigns, and the Workplace Gender Equality Citation.
The baseline report focuses on the state of workplace gender equality before the reforms were implemented, as well as the anticipation impact of WGEA’s implementation of the first 3 reforms.
The early report suggests employers believe WGEA reporting is a powerful motivator for action and find the Agency’s resources and data publications highly valuable.
After slow progress in recent years, the reforms present a watershed moment in the path to gender equality, and an opportunity to mobilise employers through the publication of gender pay gaps. Many employers are seeking to drive change with WGEA’s support.
The results show that employers are motivated to understand the drivers of inequality, both to explain their results and to take effective action.
This evaluation is an opportunity for WGEA to track progress and ensure our initiatives and actions are effective. In undertaking this evaluation, WGEA is using data and evidence – the same way we ask employers to improve. This will allow us to better target our work so that we can most effectively help employers to accelerate progress on gender equality.
Evaluation Monitoring Report
The Phase 2 Monitoring Report examines early impacts of Reforms 1–3 to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 and employer preparedness for Reform 4, which became a legislative requirement in March 2025, with employers reporting their first target selections in April 2026. The report builds on the baseline evaluation and framework and is published at an early stage of reform implementation. It assesses progress against intended outcomes, emerging impacts, and how the reforms are influencing employer behaviour and workplace gender equality.
The results show progress is already happening as a result of the legislative changes.
In the first year of full implementation, most employers are meeting their obligations under Reforms 1–3, supported by WGEA guidance and tools. Compliance with reporting and governance-related requirements has increased significantly, alongside growth in employer actions such as gender pay gap analysis, gender equality strategies and support for employees with caring responsibilities.
The publication of employer gender pay gaps has strengthened transparency and awareness across workplaces and broader stakeholders. The requirement to provide WGEA reports to the Board has significantly increased leadership visibility of workplace gender equality issues.
Early evidence also suggests accelerated progress among some employers, particularly those with larger pre-reform gender pay gaps and in feminised industries, as a result of the reforms.
- Employers with the largest gender pay gaps had the largest reduction in their base and total gender pay gaps. These reductions are 4 years ahead of where gender pay gaps would be without the reforms.
Men-dominated Boards and their Chairs have begun to shift their gender representation. These improvements are 2 years ahead for Boards and 8 years ahead for Chairs compared to composition without the reforms.
Women-dominated industries have had the biggest increase in actions taken to progress gender equality
In line with hypothesised rates of change at this early point of implementation, aggregate gender equality outcomes have not yet shifted.
Overall, findings indicate reform implementation is tracking as expected, with Reforms 1–3 laying foundations for further progress and the implementation of the globally innovative gender equality targets (Reform 4) expected to drive more sustained and accelerated change over time.
Recommended actions from the Evaluation Monitoring Report include:
- strengthening WGEA’s communication, engagement and reach
- improving content and its discoverability
- building employer capability through learning and resources
- continuously enhancing the employer user experience.
WGEA will develop and implement a plan in response to address the findings and recommendations provided in the Evaluation Monitoring Report.