DESPITE huge advancements towards gender equality over the past 140 years, women are still fighting for true parity with their male counterparts in Australia.

One prominent issue is that of the pay gap, with the federal Workplace Gender Equality Agency reporting that women working full-time earn 16 per cent less than men.

The WGEA says it is a complex issue, influenced by work, family and societal factors, including perceptions of what work men and women ‘should’ do.

“We still have a normative culture that assumes men will take on some roles and have certain characteristics, and women don’t,” Regional Development Australia Loddon Mallee chairwoman Linda Beilharz said.

Ms Beilharz said there was an unconscious bias held by both men and women that constrained the choices of women - with many less confident in their abilities than their male counterparts - and influenced the selection of candidates for certain positions in the workforce.

The WGEA has found that average remuneration in female-dominated organisations is lower than in male-dominated organisations, and wages for women tend to be lower than those for men in both.

Ms Beilharz said organisations needed to actively redress gender imbalance in the workplace, citing the CFA and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning as among those that are already taking steps in the right direction through policies such as quotas and ensuring women and men were on employment selection panels.

A women’s report undertaken by ANZ in 2015 highlighted the gendered nature of caring responsibilities as one of the major drivers of financial inequality.

Business Excellence Bendigo chief executive officer Leah Sertori believes one of the biggest issues facing women is the discrepancy in domestic responsibilities of men and women, with women tending to take on the role of primary caregiver in families.

“I still think it tends to be women who reach out and maintain those incredibly important connections that mean we can live in a vibrant and connected communities,” Ms Sertori said.

The ANZ women’s report says women spend almost twice as much time in unpaid work as men, the equivalent of 30 days a year.

Ms Beilharz said workplaces were not often set up to accommodate employees’ caregiver responsibilities.

“Women end up taking more part-time jobs to accommodate that, so they don’t progress (in their careers) as well,” she said.

Women make up 76 per cent of all part-time employees, 55 per cent of casual employees and just 37 per cent of full-time employees.

These work trends not only affect women’s career progression and pay, but lead to more financial insecurity in later life: at retirement, the average superannuation balances for women are nearly 53 per cent less than those for men.

Ms Sertori said it was an area in which the government had a role to play, by providing incentives for both women and businesses that made it easier for women to work in ongoing roles.

The government also needed to better subsidise childcare, she said, which was particularly important for sole parents and would allow more women to undertake vocational and tertiary education that would give them better access to employment.

But there had been a “major shift” in attitudes towards domestic responsibility over the past decade, Ms Sertori said, with more fathers taking on co-parenting and a more active role in the rearing of their children.

When it comes to leadership, women are still underrepresented.

For the first time, the City of Greater Bendigo has a majority female council, with five women to four men.

But the Municipal Association of Victoria says just 38 per cent of councillors across the state are women.

In federal Parliament, just 32 per cent of elected representatives in the Upper and Lower Houses are women; in Victoria, 37.5 per cent of MPs are female, with 42.5 per cent female representation in the Upper House.

The World Economic Forum says only 19 per cent of publicly traded companies in Australia have a woman at the helm of the board.

A report into women in leadership commissioned by Women’s Health Loddon Mallee in 2015 found women across the region were underrepresented, and were more likely to be elected chairwoman or mayor than CEO of an organisation.

But Ms Sertori said overall, Bendigo had a culture that was very welcoming of women in leadership positions, with its three female members of state and federal parliaments.

Ms Currie said society needed to think about the subconscious biases it held when it came to women in men, such as the valuing male leadership over that of female.

She said experiments had shown even young children held perceptions of what men and women should do.

“Subconscious gender bias starts at a very early age… and by being aware of it, we open up opportunities, especially for girls,” Ms Currie said.

The absence of gender equality also has tragic consequences for women.

In a submission to a 2016 Senate inquiry into domestic violence and gender inequality, the Australian Human Rights Commission said gendered violence was “rooted in the structural inequalities between men and women”, both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality.

Ms Currie said “not all disrespect ends with violence, but all violence starts with disrespect”.

Annie North Women’s Refuge chief executive Julie Oberin said it was  shameful “that we have such levels of violence against women, domestic murders, sexism and gender inequality throughout our society’’.

“Gender inequality is both a cause and a consequence of violence against women,’’ she said.

“They are inextricably linked and women must be free to fully participate in society as equals and they must be able to do so safety without threat of harm to them and their children.  We are increasingly seeing on-line and technology facilitated abuse against women, however it is critical that women and girls have full safe access to technology in the rapidly changing world of work and education.

“Whilst violence against women can happen across all spectrums of society, economic independence is essential.  Economic dependence and insecurity are some of the barriers for women experiencing violence. 

“International Women’s Day symbolises women’s continued struggle for the right for women to have equal pay and equal access to meaningful work, to walk the streets and live in their homes without the fear of violence or abuse, and to experience full inalienable human rights. 

“Women’s rights are human rights and yet women in Australia still earn 83.4 cents to men’s dollar and almost one woman a week is murdered by someone she has been intimate with or has known.  Women from marginalised backgrounds earn even less and experience higher levels of violence. ‘’

Ms Oberin said that while women comprised 72 per cent of all part-time workers in Australia and 55 per cent of all casual workers, that meant the recent decision of the Fair Work Commission to slash Sunday penalty rates by up to 25 per cent would “disproportionately affect female workers, increase the gender pay gap, and as a consequence is likely to  make more women vulnerable to abuse and violence’’. 

“We need to continue the struggle to prevent violence against women, to respond to the increasing amount of women seeking help due to domestic and family violence,’’ she said

“Recent government initiatives, in particular the Victorian government’s responses to redress domestic and family violence  give me cause to feel optimistic,’’ Ms Oberin said.

“However, it is important to continue to focus on the underlying structural causes of gender based violence against women and not make things worse.’’