Equality for Australian women has worsened dramatically since the beginning of this decade, with high levels of sexual harassment in the workplace, the former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, recently warned.
Professor Triggs' claim is fair. The index benchmarks countries on their progress towards gender parity. First, it awards each country a score based on the size of its gender gap. Then, it ranks countries according to their scores. Australia's overall gender gap ranking has worsened from 23rd position in 2010 (eight years ago), to 25th in 2012 (six years ago), to 35th in 2017. Professor Triggs is correct in pointing out that Australia has "regressed to 46th in the world [2016] and then slightly come back again to the thirties [35th in 2017]." The low point in 2016 was due to Australia's worsening rankings on the measures of economic participation and opportunity for women, and political empowerment — two measures that Professor Triggs specifically highlights. Professor Triggs made her comments in the context of a panel discussion about sexism in the workplace. In reaching a verdict, Fact Check focussed on economic participation and opportunity. Significantly, Australia's ranking for economic participation and opportunity has worsened dramatically in the past six and eight years. It was in 24th position eight years ago and 22nd position six years ago. By 2017 it had slumped to 42nd position. Eight years ago it had closed 72.7 per cent of the gender gap. Six years ago it had closed 72.9 per cent of the gap and by 2017, it had closed it by 73.1 per cent. Notably, Australia closed 74.1 per cent of its gender gap in 2014 and it has not been at that level since. Professor Triggs is also correct in noting that Australia holds a number one ranking, along with other countries, when it comes to educational attainment. Finally, Australia's overall ranking has to be seen in context. According to the World Economic Forum the 2017 global gender gap report showed that slow but steady global progress on improving parity between the sexes came to a halt in 2017, with the global gender gap widening for the first time since 2006.
Fact check: Has equality for Australian women relative to the world fallen in the last six or eight years?
['Australia', 'Australian_Human_Rights_Commission']