Nearly half of Australia’s most disadvantaged young women aren’t involved in work or study after leaving school, despite overall rising educational achievements among girls, a government report has found. The Council of Australian Governments (Coag) Reform Council report, which studied outcomes for women and girls in Australia in the past five years, found 46% of disadvantaged women between 18 and 24 years of age aren’t in work or in higher education. This is in stark contrast to the wealthiest group of young Australian women, in which just 17% aren’t involved in work or study. The study found that girls outperform boys in reading and writing in both primary and secondary school, although boys do better than girls in numeracy across the country. Last year 87.8% of young women completed year 12, compared with 84.1% of young men, with these women catching up to men in terms of higher qualification attainment. But despite this strong performance at school, girls are less likely to move into full-time study or work after they finish. While 79% of young men are engaged in employment or education, just 73% of young women do the same, a gap the report says “has remained relatively unchanged for the past 10 years”. The challenges faced by disadvantaged young women are particularly significant. While the gap in education and employment takeup between wealthy young men and their poorer counterparts is 19%, the discrepancy between these socioeconomic groups among women is 28.5%. The gap in year 12 attainment between rich and poor young women is 19.3%, while in year three reading skills, the gap between the two groups is an enormous 91.8%. Women who do make it into the workforce continue to face pay disparities, with Coag finding that female average weekly earnings are 17.5% lower than men’s in 2013. The median graduate starting salary for women is $50,000, which is $5,000 less than men. A quarter of families with children under 12 do not access childcare due to the cost, while women retire with an average of 36% less superannuation than men. Female life expectancy, at 84.2 years, is higher than men, with women more likely to be healthier and less likely to be homeless. But a third of women who are homeless cite domestic violence as the reason for their predicament. The former Victorian premier John Brumby, who chaired the report, said in a letter to Tony Abbott that more needed to be done to aid disadvantaged women. “Gaps remain in workforce participation and representation in leadership roles,” he wrote. “This has economic implications across the lifespan with lower overall pay and smaller superannuation savings for women on retirement. “Women from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women with disability and female carers are disproportionately affected by these economic disadvantages. “We also find that Australian women are generally living healthy and long lives—with life expectancy well above the OECD average. “However, more could be done to address health inequalities affecting Indigenous women, women from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those living in regional and remote areas.” Dr Lisa O’Brien, chief executive of anti-poverty group the Smith Family, told Guardian Australia that the inequality among young women would have “huge implications” for Australia’s future. “There are large groups of young Australian women who are being left behind in life,” she said. “We have to give the most vulnerable girls the education they need and get the building blocks right for what they do after school. “There’s a big gap between disadvantaged women and wealthier women, which is hugely concerning. I think there are cultural issues involved, such as entrenched expectations held by friends and family that are then taken on by the women themselves. “We can’t ignore the fact that most caring roles are heavily gender-defined. We still have a long way to go and that involves focusing our efforts on school, which is why needs-based funding is absolutely essential. “We need to build the aspirations of girls, especially around the time of years eight and nine at school where they form life goals.” Martin Thomas, spokesman at Mission Australia, said the relative lack of young women taking up employment required “urgent attention”. “It’s bad enough that women in general continue to face an uphill battle to achieve equity with their male colleagues in the workforce,” he said. “But the fact that the gap between ‘rich and poor’ is even worse among women demonstrates the desperate need for more to be done. “We want all young Australians to have a great start in life – and helping them to make a strong transition from school to work or further study and training is one of the most important steps.”
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 07:51:11 +0000
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