Australia’s gender pay gap could be narrowed by increasing part-time leadership roles and adopting co-CEO arrangements, according to a report from the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and Curtin University. The findings, released on Tuesday, highlight persistent barriers for women in senior management and call for more flexible workplace policies to retain female leaders.
The report analysed data from WGEA covering 5.4 million employees and found that although women are attaining senior positions at higher rates than men in 2024-25, they remain more likely to leave those roles. Women accounted for a higher promotion rate among full-time workers, but men were slightly more likely to be promoted to management positions overall. Moreover, women in management resigned at a rate of 13.8%, compared to 12% for men.
WGEA chief executive Christine Castley attributed these disparities to the uneven distribution of caring responsibilities and limited flexible working options available to those in leadership. She said, “There is very much an embedded idea that management roles can never be part-time, and probably what flows from that is most flexible arrangements don’t apply to management roles.” According to data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, many women stop working or shift to part-time employment after having their first child, which contributes to their under-representation at the highest levels.
The report also identified gender imbalances within female-dominated industries. In health care and social assistance, where women make up roughly three-quarters of the workforce, they hold about half of CEO positions. Across Australian companies, women comprise only one in five board chairs or chief executives.
Castley suggested that employers could adopt innovative measures to support women in leadership positions, such as extending carers’ leave to grandparents or adjusting work schedules to accommodate school drop-offs and pick-ups. The report noted the emerging practice of co-CEO roles, effectively job-sharing arrangements at the highest level, as a potential model to help retain women.
Only 13.2% of organisations surveyed had designed management roles to be part-time, but those that did saw significantly higher promotion rates for female part-time non-managers. The presence of flexible work policies correlated with greater female representation at senior management levels.
Dr Silvia Salazar, a co-author of the report, noted that shared parental responsibilities could also impact career trajectories. Women accounted for 80% of primary carer parental leave recipients in 2024-25 and were more likely than men to leave their jobs during this period. Despite this, 33% of employers did not provide additional paid parental leave. Salazar said, “Employers cannot determine how care is divided at home but they can help make sure that becoming a parent does not mean stepping off the path to career progression.”
While gender equality measures have improved over recent decades, the report highlighted growing resistance to these reforms, particularly among younger Australians. Pauline Hanson, leader of the One Nation party, has argued that the gender pay gap stems from women taking time off work and opposed employer-funded parental leave.
Castley acknowledged a shift in public discourse, saying, “Certainly many people who have worked in this space have a bit of a sense that the conversation’s moved a few steps backwards from where it was.” Nonetheless, she emphasised WGEA’s commitment to providing objective data to inform ongoing efforts toward workplace gender equality.