Finance staff gathered last week to mark International Equal Pay Day with a vibrant discussion exploring how organisations can move beyond reporting gender pay gaps and take meaningful action to address systemic barriers.
Thank you to our invited guest speakers for sharing their experience, insights and personal reflections:
- Helen Dalley-Fisher AM, Executive Director, National Foundation for Australian Women, and Chair, ACT Women’s Advisory Council on Gender Equity
- Dr Joyce Das, Executive Director and Founder, Go Equal
- Dr Hang Anh (Tia) Nguyen, Research Fellow, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, ANU.
Pay equity is closely connected to Finance’s role in supporting leadership, transparency, evidence-based policy, and better workplace outcomes across the APS.
The panel explored the theme Beyond the Numbers: From Pay Gap Data to Real Change. While gender pay gap data provides an important measure of progress, our panellists challenged us to look deeper at the structural factors driving inequality, including unpaid care work, workforce participation, workplace design, occupational segregation and access to leadership opportunities.
A few of the key insights:
- Data helps us see the problem, but it does not solve it.
- Gender equality is not only a social issue - it is also an economic opportunity.
- The most effective solutions address systems and structures, not individuals.
- If we design policies and workplaces that work for the most marginalised members of our community, they work better for everyone.
This event was hosted by Finance’s Gender Equity Network, one of our many staff-led networks and groups that help raise awareness, share Finance values, and support a positive and inclusive workplace culture.
