Aussie men and women ranking as more equal than ever

AUSTRALIA has achieved a record global gender equality ranking, but it still lags behind more than half of the nations surveyed in a global report.

Despite climbing an impressive five places to eighth on the 148-nation global ladder, Aussie women are not flying as high as their peers overseas on life expectancy, and lag surprisingly far behind on some school outcomes.

While Australian women live longer than men, the gap between them was narrower than elsewhere, dragging its ranking on that metric down to 107th.

Its parity on school outcomes also came in a lousy 79th place, after a drop in women’s secondary school enrolment the study picked up in 2022 that has not rebounded.

Parity on estimated economic income is still worse than it was at its peak in 2006, when it sat at 72.1 per cent, the ladder revealed, but the measure was on the up.

It was Australia’s first appearance in the top 10 since the index debuted. New Zealand, the only country in East Asia and the Pacific to do any better, has never slipped below 10th.

“Australia’s recent performance follows a clear inflection point: consecutive gains since 2023 have lifted what had previously been a largely flat trajectory,” the study said.

The index evaluates gender gaps rather than absolute outcomes, meaning Australia could still fare poorer than countries where women live shorter lives, earn less and are not as well educated.

It leads the world on gender equality in literacy rates, women in ministerial positions, sex ratio at birth, enrolment in primary and in tertiary education, and gender ratios of professional and technical workers.

Overall, Iceland topped the ladder for the 17th year in a row – no non-Nordic country has ever broken the top three.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the report.

“When we first came to government, we were ranked 43rd – and slipped to an all-time low of 50th under the previous coalition government,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

“The job is not done.”

Minister for Women Katy Gallagher highlighted violence against women as a continuing black mark on Australia’s gender parity record.

“We know there is more work to do across our priorities,” she said.

“This is just one measure that shows Australia is moving in the right direction.”