Gender inequality in Australia
Encyclopedia
In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, gender inequality
Gender inequality
Gender inequality refers to disparity between individuals due to gender. Gender is constructed both socially through social interactions as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure, and hormonal differences. Gender systems are often dichotomous and hierarchical; binary gender...

 denotes the inconsistencies between individuals due to gender. The topic covers a variety of concerns from health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...

 to equal opportunity in terms of employment and wages.

Legislation

In response to the concerns, the Australian government have implemented various legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. The legislation covers the issues of discrimination in education, partnerships, marital status, sexual harassment and potential pregnancy.

The Australian government has also formed an agency, the EOWA
Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency is an Australian government agency. It is statutory authority located within the portfolio of the Australian Commonwealth Department of Families Housing Community Servcies and Indigenous Affairs .EOWA’s role is to administer the Equal...

 to deal with such matters.

Sociological analysis

From a sociological standpoint, a distinction is made between sex and gender, where it is argued that gender is the product of social discourse.

The question of whether these trends are the result of personal decisions or the product of social pressure, is highly contentious.

Employment

Australia has a persistent gender pay gap. Between 1990 and 2009, the gender pay gap remained within a narrow range of between 15 and 17 %. In August 2010, the Australian gender pay gap was 16.9%.

Studies show that between 60 to 90 % of the Australian gender pay gap cannot be explained by differences in individual or workplace characteristics between women and men and that discrimination plays an important role in the gender pay gap.

Studies that examine the gender pay gap across the entire wage distribution find that the gender pay gap is much greater among high wage earners than among low wage earners even after controlling for various individual and workplace related factors. These results indicate that a glass ceiling
Glass ceiling
In economics, the term glass ceiling refers to "the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." Initially, the metaphor applied to barriers in the careers of women but...

 may be found in the Australian labor market.

Gender and health

Differences in health is illustrated through the data retrieved from the ABS
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...

, where it gap between men and women in terms of life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...

. In 1998, the life expectancy of men was 75.9 compared to 81.5 for women.

Education

The inequality in the context of education, has greater implications in terms of future employment. Elements of the school curriculum still advocate certain gender specific practices

Sexuality

Denotes the wider concerns regarding the recognition of LGBT rights.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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