Gender pay gaps and unemployment rates

  Despite having different levels of economic development, the gender pay gap exists as a common problem in the region. Countries with a large primary sector like Papua New Guinea, women have less chance to participate in the non-agricultural sector. According to the Papua New Guinea 2011 Country Gender Assessment, men are almost twice as likely as women to work for wages across both urban and rural areas and only one in eight persons with access to cash income is female. On average, women also receive less than half of their male counterpart’s income (World Bank). Even in advanced economies like Australia, the gender pay gap is still wide which is 32% in 2013. This is in part due to the large proportion of women working part-time (Charlesworth and Macdonald, 2015). Also, according to the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency data, employees in female-dominated organizations still have a lower base salary and total remuneration compared to male-dominated ones (Australia, Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee).

 

This shows an undervaluation of feminized work in the country. Laura Ryan, head of research at Sydney-based Ardea, commented that ‘one of the arguments put forward as to why women are paid less is that we are too agreeable. It looks like we are being assertive, but if we are not we definitely miss out. Gender is a strongly significant factor in determining salary’ (Papuc and Bloomberg).

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  Unemployment rates vary significantly by gender in Oceania. The 2017 Fiji census data uncovered that there was 7.8% unemployment rate for females and only 2.9% for males. Even in New Zealand, the unemployment rate for women was 5.8% and 4.8% for men in March 2020 (Stats NZ). Women are more vulnerable to lose their jobs in economic hardship like a pandemic. Women with different ethnicities could have different experiences. Data has shown that Maori and Pacific people in New Zealand had much higher unemployment rates, 9% and 8% in 2018 respectively than people with other ethnicities such as Asian (4.2%) and European (3.5%) (Hinton). Maori and Pacific women would be disproportionately unemployed compared with Asian and European women.

 

Traditional division of labour by gender

  Traditionally, women in Oceania are expected to perform domestic duties such as child-rearing, food cultivation and gardening. These conventions have played a crucial role in hindering the development of gender equality and made the division of labour by gender persists. For example, in Fiji, women tend to participate in low paying informal sectors such as agriculture, handicrafts, sales-related jobs and tourism. The 2017 study carried out by the Finance and Public Administration References Committee in Australia pointed out that occupational gender segregation, especially the horizontal one, has remained persistent over the last two decades. The proportion of females in conventionally female-dominated industries has risen. These industries include Health Care, Social Assistance, Education and Training. Nurses and teachers are often pictured as women while doctors and lawyers as men. The gender stereotypes affect both the individual’s choice and the practices by companies’ HR team. If young women in high school choose to go into non-traditional fields, ‘there is quite an extreme amount of harassment and bullying that the young women face--- they have to go through trials and tribulations to complete their apprenticeship’. In companies, the unconscious bias also reinforces the stereotypes by eliminating female candidates in the interview for a male-dominated position (Australia, Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee).  

 

Absent of female leaders in the workplace

  There is vertical occupational segregation where the promotion opportunities for females in companies are limited compared to their male counterparts. Employed women have significantly less time to advance their professional skills and seek personal development as a result of the heavy domestic burden on their shoulders. According to a 2007 report by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, economically active females did an average of 26 hours of household work per week while for males it was only 9 hours (Fiji Women's Rights Movement).

 

There has been a global trend that despite the increase in women’s economic participation, men are still unwilling to take on greater responsibility for domestic work and unpaid care. This could confine women in part-time jobs or force them to give up promotion opportunities to balance work and family.

 

In Australia, a 2015 research by Leanin.org and McKinsey & Company found that 90% of CEOs were hired and promoted from line or operational roles and 100% of those were men. Females are more likely to hold staff roles which have little chances of promotion to senior positions (Australia, Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee). 

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Varvara Ioannou, the founder of the Food For Thought Network, shared her experience as a Greek Australian woman. She said ‘Culturally diverse women experience a double jeopardy in accessing leadership roles. When I started the network 19 years ago, it was very difficult to find Greek Australian women in positions of power whom I could engage as motivational speakers’ (Papathanasiou). This shows that racial inequality could worsen the situation facing women in the country.