Evaluation of WGEA’s reform implementation

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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. 

The evaluation focuses on 4 reforms within WGEA’s work to accelerate change. 

These reforms are:

  • a requirement for employers to share their Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report with their board
  • WGEA’s publication of employer gender pay gaps
  • a new gender equality standard for employers with 500 or more employees to have a policy or strategy against each of the 6 gender equality indicators
  • a requirement for employers with 500 or more employees to select and commit to achieving gender equality targets. (This reform was not legislated before the delivery of the baseline report.)

The evaluation will be multi-year and 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.