Last week I read something worth celebrating so I thought I’d share that women now make up more than 50% of the legal workforce in Australia!
I was also inspired by how women are so essential to the legal profession and I would love to see more of just that across all fields.
I shared this with a few of my female lawyer friends and while they were all very proud and happy, they all made a similar comment along the lines of “equal pay next”.
While Australia is leading in women taking over the legal profession, it should not be overlooked that we have a gender pay gap issue. In fact, our pay gap is among the worst across all OECD countries.
The gender pay gap is the difference between women’s and men’s average weekly full-time equivalent earnings, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. In Australia, it is currently sitting at 15.
This means that if you compare two people who are doing the same job with the same experience and qualifications, the man will still earn on average 15% more than the woman.
So while we celebrate women making up more than 50% of the legal workforce, let’s not forget that there is still a long way to go in terms of gender equality in Australia.
We need to continue fighting for equal pay, and we need to make sure that women have the same opportunities as men to succeed in all fields.
Only then can we truly say that we have achieved gender equality.
What do you think about this milestone? Are you proud of Australian women? Let me know in the comments below!