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Women's lack of confidence is commonly regarded as a key reason why women lag behind men's career outcomes. This paper interrogates this claim by examining the empirical link between an individual's confidence and job promotion prospects through a gender lens. We use nationally-representative data for 7533 individuals collected in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey in 2013. Confidence is captured by a psychometric survey instrument, Achievement Motivation, which is dually comprised of 'hope for success' and 'fear of failure'. Using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, we detect that higher hope for success is linked to a higher likelihood of job promotion, but only amongst men. This finding provides no evidence to support the widespread advice commonly given to women that they need to 'lean in' and show more confidence as the mechanism to close gender gaps in the workplace.

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This report highlights the disproportionate impact that [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 has had on women's employment, particularly the employment and education opportunities for young women. The report, commissioned by Australians Investing in Women and undertaken by Equity Economics, shows women shouldered 3 out of 5 job losses across Australia in 2020 and in Victoria, 4 out of 5 job losses were women. The report also found there was a 28 per cent increase in the number of young women not in education or employment, compared to a 20 per cent increase in the number of young men. Other key findings of the report include: (1) while young people aged 15-24 account for 15 per cent of the labour force, they accounted for 55 per cent of the job losses; off those who lost their job, 68 per cent were young; (2) young women without a post-school qualification lost the most jobs across all age and education groups, accounting for 125,000 job losses between February and May 2020; analysis shows this was driven by the overrepresentation of young women without a post- school qualification in the industries most impacted by lockdowns (i.e. retail, hospitality, and the arts); (3) young migrant men and women were disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, particularly those from non-English speaking backgrounds; young migrant women from non-English speaking backgrounds suffered a 44.4 per cent fall in employment at the height of the pandemic in May; (4) female enrolments in post-school education fell in net terms by around 85,600 in May 2020, relative to May 2019; men's enrolments, by comparison, fell by around 24,400 - in other words, women comprised 78 per cent, or close to four times as many, of this; and (5) around 34,000 women are now unlikely to complete a Certificate III or IV and as a consequence, they face a 10 per cent reduction in their employment prospects, from 78 per cent down to 68 per cent, a fall in full-time earnings of almost $3,000 a year.

To ensure the economic fallout from the pandemic does not derail the future trajectory of young women's education and employment and further widen the gap between men and women's economic outcomes, the report recommends greater investment and dedicated focus to: strengthen young women's education and training pathways; strengthen women's transition into and sustained attachment to employment; strengthen women's business opportunities; and initiatives to support gender equity.

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This paper documents the impacts of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian workforce, analysed through a gender lens. A suite of labour market indicators, disaggregated by gender, is examined to identify the ways in which men and women were affected differently by the economic impacts of the pandemic as well as by government policy. Using [Australian Bureau of Statistics] ABS Labour Force Survey data, the paper develops a cumulative measure of workforce losses over the course of the pandemic, calculated comparatively for men and women, and assessed relative to the workforce's prepandemic composition.

This measure finds that women experienced the bulk of the cumulative losses in employment throughout the first twelve months of the pandemic from March 2020 to February 2021 - equivalent to a 55 per cent share of total months of lost employment - despite comprising only 47 per cent of total employment prior to the pandemic. Younger women, especially, experienced a disproportionately higher share of employment losses. The Victorian workforce, where lockdowns were implemented for a longer period than in other states and territories, is highlighted as a case study of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women's employment. Applying a gender lens to this analysis can inform the application of gender responsive budgeting in the government's future policy-making processes. We also highlight the need to further disaggregate data through an intersectional lens to more fully understand the impacts of the pandemic on particular demographic cohorts of the workforce.

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As cyber security becomes an increasingly critical issue for governments, businesses and everyday citizens in Australia, the number of people in the cyber security workforce is soaring. Despite the sector's rapid expansion and growing importance, the sector is characterised by a stark under- representation of women. The low level of participation of women in the sector means that the sector is not operating at its full potential. To date, little research in Australia has been undertaken into the exact proportion of women employed in the sector, what roles they are undertaking, and the reasons behind the sector's unbalanced gender composition.

This report contributes to addressing this knowledge gap. It examines the gender composition of the Australian cyber security workforce and the types of roles that women in the sector are undertaking by drawing on the results from our survey, Australian Census data and existing literature. Additionally, this report enhances our understanding of the factors that support women's involvement in the cyber security industry as well as the barriers that prevent women from joining, staying and thriving in the field. It identifies some of the underlying reasons for women's under-representation and identifies evidence-based approaches to expand the sector's talent pool.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less