Advancing Gender Equality in Gender Segregated Industries

Overview

The Australian Government is inviting organisations via a restricted process to apply to deliver projects under Program 3.1: Workplace Support. The Grant Program will run from 2025–26 to 2027–28. It is intended to advance gender equality in gender segregated industries, occupations, and workplaces. This is in line with priority area 3 (economic equality and security) of Working for Women, the Australian Government’s gender equality strategy. Australia’s high rates of gender segregation compared to other advanced economies is a result and driver of gender inequality. Industry gender segregation accounts for around one quarter of the gender pay gap. The Government’s national strategy for gender equality, Working for Women, outlines the role gender segregated industries play in the unequal sharing of unpaid care between men and women. Women in male-dominated industries also often face work practices, cultural barriers or inadequate facilities and amenities, which can impact their participation in these industries, damage their safety, health and dignity, and send a signal that women do not belong in those spaces. The intended outcomes are: industry and employers continue to invest in gender equality initiatives and best practice activities because they are aware of their obligations, and the positive impacts of gender equality on workers and business, while also having the capacity to take action targeted industry-level initiatives are developed that, beyond the term of the grant, can be scaled up to help remove barriers to workforce participation for certain worker cohorts, or tailored to the specific needs of individual workplaces.