The 2025 Gender Equity Insights report, The Power of Balance, shows organisations taking action to improve gender equality see lower staff turnover, more women in leadership and better shareholder value.
It also warns Australian businesses could fall behind their competitors if they don’t take strong action to address gender balance.
This is the 10th report in the Gender Equity Insights Series from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said every employer could secure benefits from addressing gender equality, starting with a gender pay gap analysis.
“The evidence is clear that gender-balanced leadership teams don’t just support women, they also deliver stronger results by fostering better decision-making, innovation and capacity to navigate challenges,” Ms Wooldridge said.
“This research points to the benefits that flow to those employers that choose to embed gender equality into their business strategies.
“By digging into the data and developing an approach that’s tailored to their specific workforce needs, employers can build a strong pipeline of talented leaders and help safeguard the long-term sustainability of their organisation.”
The 2025 report investigates what drives gender balance. Gender balance means having at least 40% women and 40% men in the workforce.
It reveals that higher resignation rates for women is a key factor shaping whether companies move towards, or away from, a gender-balanced workforce.
As a result, it will be harder for businesses that don’t address retention to reach gender balance.
But, companies that take proactive action – like setting goals for pay equity, doing a regular gender pay gap analysis, and making leadership roles more flexible – see fewer women resigning and more women moving into management.
The new findings are drawn from WGEA’s world-leading dataset of Australian employers, covering more than 5.1 million workers.
Download the report
Key insights
gender-balanced leadership can boost company value by close to $93 million for a $1 billion ASX-listed business
companies with gender balance in leadership have fewer staff resigning and more staff staying, have stronger market value, profitability and shareholder returns fewer than one in 3 organisations (27.3%) have achieved a gender-balanced workforce. But resignation rates are still higher for women, especially when employers do not take action to address gender equality
businesses that take deliberate action, such as setting targets to improve gender equality, tracking resignation patterns and offering flexibility in leadership roles, make faster progress towards gender balance of their workforce.
Other key findings include:
many roles are now within 5% of pay parity, but structural issues such as segregation across roles and industries remains the key driver of gender pay gaps
Boards are edging closer to gender parity, yet only one in 4 employers have gender-balanced leadership teams.
Key actions for employers:
set and publish gender equity targets for leadership and hold boards accountable for progress
strengthen pipelines into profit-and-loss and operational leadership roles where women are under-represented
track resignation patterns and address barriers driving women out of key industries
remove structures that prevent part-time and flexible workers from advancing into senior roles
redesign recruitment and career pathways for men and women in roles traditionally dominated by the other gender
conduct regular gender pay gap analysis and act on the findings to reduce inequities in progression and reward
normalise flexible leadership positions to enable both women and men to lead, while working flexibly
share successful equity strategies across industries to accelerate progress.
What is BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights?
Gender Equity Insights is an annual report produced by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) in collaboration with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).
The reports identify trends, policies and practices that work to address gender inequality in the workplace.
The analysis is based on data collected in the annual WGEA census of private sector and Commonwealth public sector employers with 100 or more employees.
Download past reports
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2024: The changing nature of part-time work in Australia
The ninth report explores the state of part-time employment and flexible working arrangements in Australia. It examines the prominence and evolution of part-time work and the potential for part-time to include more flexible work arrangements aligned with employee preferences and the evolving nature of work.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2023: How to speed up gender equality
Titled, Accelerating the Pace of Change, the 2023 report examined the actions employers can take to reduce the gender pay gap and developed a 'maturity framework' for workplace gender equality.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2022 How Australia's gender pay gap could narrow by 1/3
The seventh edition, titled The State of Inequality in Australia, found Australia’s gender pay gap could narrow by a third if a more balanced gender concentration was achieved across all industries and occupations. It also broke down the gender pay gap by location, using data collected by WGEA for the first time.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2021 What actions do the top performing employers on gender equality have in common?
Making it a Priority identified the actions top performing employers took to improve workplace gender equality. it found increasing the share of women on boards led to better outcomes for gender equality and better business outcomes across a suite of metrics.
Key finding: “Companies that consistently undertake pay gap audits see a faster reduction in gender pay gaps within their organisation."
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2020 The business benefits of improving gender equality
Delivering the Business Outcomes found a strong and convincing causal relationship between increasing the share of women in leadership and subsequent improvements in company performance.
This relationship is present when increasing women’s representation on boards, increasing the share of women in the most senior leadership tier of the company and when appointing a female CEO.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2019 Breaking through the glass ceiling
This fourth report in the BCEC WGEA Gender Equity Insight Series, provides insight into positive change that has been made across different sectors in recent years and highlights the importance of workplace policy initiatives in ensuring women continue to progress into senior positions and in narrowing the gender pay gap in Australia.
The findings showcase the crucial role flexible workplace policies, employer provided on-site childcare and employer-funded paid parental leave has on achieving this positive change.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2018 Audits, action based on data, and accountability are they key to reducing the gender pay gap
Inside the Gender Pay Gap finds pay audits alone are not enough to break the inertia needed to end the gender pay gap. Measurement combined with action and accountability is the trifecta that drives the strongest improvements in pay equity outcomes. Actions do make a difference in promoting greater gender pay equity, but more so when outcomes are ‘owned’ by organisational leadership.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2017 What are the key drivers of Australia's gender pay gap?
This report examines the link between gender segregation within organisations and the gender pay gap. It looks at the gender pay gap among graduates at different points along the earnings distribution and across industries. A final Special Investigation section focuses the spotlight on women in leadership positions.
BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights 2016 Increasing the representation of women on boards lowers the gender pay gap
Inside Australia's Gender Pay Gap looks at the link between female Board representation and the size of the gender pay gap. The research uncovered some of the strongest evidence to date that shows greater representation of women on Boards is associated with a significant reduction in the gender pay gap.
The report findings also draw attention to the greater remuneration men receive compared to women in almost every scenario, but particularly among more senior occupation levels and when additional remuneration is taken into account.
Learn how to design roles for part-time, conduct a gender pay gap analysis or create a workplace gender equality action plan.
Super charge your progress towards workplace gender equality with our Action Planning Tool
Learn how to undertake this critical first step to improving workplace gender equality.