Workforce composition

The most senior roles are heavily male-dominated

The representation of women declines with seniority. However, the representation of women across all manager categories has grown consistently since 2013-14.

The growth in the number of women appointed to boards and governing bodies remains slow.

• The proportion of female directors in 2018-19 was 26.8% (up 1.0pp from 2017-18).
• The proportion of female chairs in 2018-19 remained at 14.1% (up 0.4pp from 2017-18).
• 34.0% of boards and governing bodies have no female directors. By contrast, only 0.9% had no male directors.

Increases in women managers across most industries

Women’s management representation has increased in most industries, with only three sectors recording lower proportions of female managers this year (Health Care and Social Assistance, Administrative and Support Services and Accommodation and Food Services).

The biggest industry increases in female representation among managers were in Transport, Postal and Warehousing (up 1.8pp to 27.7%), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (up 1.1pp to 35.2%), Manufacturing (up 1.1pp to 24.6%), and Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services (up 1.0pp to 34.8%).

Non-manager roles segregated by occupation

Women comprise 51.5% of all non-manager roles and are concentrated in traditionally female occupations including Community and personal service and Clerical and administration.

Australia’s workforce remains highly gender segregated

Across the workforce, women and men are concentrated in different industries. Of 19 industries, just eight have at least 40% women and men. Women are concentrated in Health Care and Social Assistance and Education and Training and are least represented in Construction and Mining.

Mining, Transport, Postal and Warehousing, Public Administration and Safety, and Administrative and Support Services are the only four industries where women are not under-represented in management compared to representation across the industry. All other industries, even female-dominated ones, have a lower proportion of women in management compared to women in the workforce. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (17.2pp), Financial and Insurance Services (13.7pp), Arts and Recreation Services (13.8pp) and Wholesale Trade (11.6pp) have the biggest gap between representation of women in the workforce and representation of women in management.

Where do women and men work?

Women’s workforce participation is concentrated in a few large industries. Health Care and Social Assistance is by far the largest employer of women, followed by Education and Training and Retail Trade.

Men are more evenly spread across the workforce than women, although they have low representation in the highly-feminised
industry of Health Care and Social Assistance.

Workforce composition by gender dominance

Over half of Australian employees work in industries that are dominated by one gender. An organisation or industry is classified as gender mixed if it has at least 40% representation of both women and men.