Gender and Diversity

The gender income and wealth gap remains a persistent issue of policy concern, despite long-run increases in women’s participation in tertiary education and employment, and advancements in policies promoting gender equity in Australia. Existing BCEC research highlights significant gender pay gaps in the workplace, which in turn can exacerbate other forms of gender inequity such as slowing the rate of accumulation of superannuation wealth, increased reliance on government income support over the life course, and increased exposure to poverty in old age. Research under this theme sheds light on issues that affect gender equity in WA and nationally, including gender pay and wealth gaps, women’s representation in senior leadership, occupational segregation, the effects of informal care roles on employment outcomes and gendered differences in age discrimination in labour markets.

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Parenthood and the distribution of intra-household inequalities in wellbeing Siobhan Austen, Jaslin Kalsi, Astghik Mavisakalyan While there is a large body of literature on the effects of parenthood on wellbeing, an intra-household perspective has, thus far, been limited. This is an important research gap given that the experience of raising children is typically associated with... Read article 7 March 2023Journal Articles Read More
BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – January 2023 Michael Dockery, Alan Duncan, Astghik Mavisakalyan Evidence of downturn builds, but unlikely to save mortgage holders from further pain Can we get inflation under control without driving the economy into recession? That’s the big challenge for Australian policy-makers for 2023. After eight consecutive interest rate rises... Read article 17 February 2023Monthly Labour Market Update Read More
Gender Equity Insights 2022: The state of inequality in Australia Alan Duncan, Astghik Mavisakalyan, Silvia Salazar Missed the online report launch? You can watch it on YouTube here. The seventh edition of the BCEC|WGEA Gender Equity Insights series looks at Australia’s gender pay gap and finds that it could narrow by a third if a more... Read article 20 October 2022BCEC Reports  |  Gender Equity Insights Read More
2022 Women’s Report Card Alan Duncan, Daniel Kiely, Silvia Salazar The 2022 Women’s Report Card sets out the status and current state of play of women in Western Australia, and in doing so, helps to track progress to achieving better outcomes for women. As is the case to varying degrees... Read article 4 August 2022Research Reports Read More
Retirement and the distribution of intra-household wellbeing Siobhan Austen, Jaslin Kalsi, Astghik Mavisakalyan This study analyses the links between retirement and the distribution of intra-household wellbeing among Australian mixed-sex couples. We study the implications of own and partner’s retirement on measures of life satisfaction, financial satisfaction, and free time satisfaction using household panel... Read article 29 July 2022Journal Articles Read More
Gendered language and gendered violence Lewis Davis, Astghik Mavisakalyan, Clas Weber This study establishes the influence of sex-based grammatical gender on gendered violence. We demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between gendered language and the incidence of intimate partner violence in a cross-section of countries. Motivated by this evidence, we conduct an... Read article 18 July 2022Working Papers Read More