New report shows there are still more male leaders, even in women-dominated fields
Gender equity is disappearing in Australia's most senior roles at work, even in industries where women dominate men numerically, a new analysis from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) has found.
The BCEC report analysed extensive employer data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) to find that women's representation has risen across management and on boards, while pay gaps have narrowed in many places.
Professor Alan Duncan, a co-author of the report and BCEC director, also pointed out that the findings revealed that women are being promoted at higher rates than men at several points in the pipeline.
Full-time female managers were promoted more often than their male counterparts in 2024–25, with a striking 18.4% promotion rate against 14.1% for men.
"Yet that advantage disappears by the time we reach the most senior positions," Duncan said.
"Men remain overrepresented in the highest leadership roles, and this is particularly striking in industries where women make up the majority of the workforce."
The report dubbed the trend the "male pedestal effect," where men represent a larger share of senior roles than their share of that sector's workforce.
This can be observed in some women-dominated industries such as Health Care and Social Assistance, where men make up just 22.2% of workers but hold around half of CEO and head of business positions.
"The pedestal effect asks employers to compare who leads a sector with who works in it," Duncan said. "Women can dominate an industry numerically and still be significantly underrepresented at the top."
Addressing the 'male pedestal' effect
The report attributed the trend to a variety of factors, including the impact of parenting on career progression and the lack of flexible work offerings at key moments in employees' careers.
"Following a first birth, women's employment patterns vary greatly by their previous industry. Women also report more unpaid work than their partners even when both work full-time," the report read.
It noted that female managers resigned at a higher rate than male managers, and that resignation during paid parental leave was also higher for women.
Organisations have long been urged to provide flexibility to enable more women to hold higher positions in the workplace.
WGEA's employer datasets show that over 90% of organisations offered flexible start and finish times in 2024–25 and 86% offered part-time work.
However, only 13.2% of employers designed management roles for part-time work. Meanwhile, only 11% of organisations have a target to increase men's use of parental leave.
Dr Silvia Salazar, a co-author of the report and BCEC senior research fellow, said employers can help make sure that becoming a parent does not mean stepping off the path to career progression.
"Offering part-time work is very different from designing senior jobs that can actually be done part-time. If flexibility disappears as people move up the organisation, employers risk narrowing their leadership pipeline just as experienced workers are ready to progress," Salazar said.
WGEA said employers should design management roles that can be performed flexibility, while ensuring that this will not limit promotion of pay progression.
"The goal should be to make flexibility part of a career pathway, rather than something that comes at the expense of career progression," Salazar said.
