The claim

Equality for Australian women has worsened dramatically since the beginning of this decade, with high levels of sexual harassment in the workplace, the former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, recently warned.

Her comments followed a stoush between Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, in which Senator Hanson-Young alleged he told her to "stop shagging men" and then swore at her when she confronted him.

The feud deepened when Senator Hanson-Young said she would sue Senator Leyonhjelm for defaming her with comments that amounted to "slut-shaming", and he in turn used parliamentary resources to determine how often the Greens senator has been asked to withdraw contentious remarks in the Senate.

Sorry, this video has expired Sarah Hanson-Young accuses David Leyonhjelm of sexist slur.

Discussing the issue of sexism in Parliament, University of Sydney Emeritus Professor Triggs, told ABC radio: "It's critical to understand that the position of women in Australia has regressed quite dramatically in the last six or eight years.

"Women, while they're number one as educated women in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, we've now regressed to 46th in the world and then slightly come back again to the thirties, for economic empowerment and political engagement," she said.

"And I think we really have to understand this is a profoundly unequal and unfair environment for women exacerbated of course by high levels of sexual harassment in the workplace, at a pinnacle in a sense, in the Senate itself," she said.

So, has the position of women relative to men in Australia regressed dramatically over the past six to eight years compared to the rest of the world? RMIT ABC Fact Check takes a look.

The verdict

Professor Triggs' claim is fair.

On the World Economic Forum's annual global gender gap index, Australia's overall world ranking has worsened in the past six years and eight years.

The index benchmarks countries on their progress towards gender parity.

First, it awards each country a score based on the size of its gender gap. Then, it ranks countries according to their scores.

Australia's overall gender gap ranking has worsened from 23rd position in 2010 (eight years ago), to 25th in 2012 (six years ago), to 35th in 2017.

Has the position of women in Australia regressed over the last six or eight years? ( ABC News: Jed Cooper )

Professor Triggs is correct in pointing out that Australia has "regressed to 46th in the world [2016] and then slightly come back again to the thirties [35th in 2017]."

The low point in 2016 was due to Australia's worsening rankings on the measures of economic participation and opportunity for women, and political empowerment — two measures that Professor Triggs specifically highlights.

Professor Triggs made her comments in the context of a panel discussion about sexism in the workplace. In reaching a verdict, Fact Check focussed on economic participation and opportunity.

Significantly, Australia's ranking for economic participation and opportunity has worsened dramatically in the past six and eight years.

It was in 24th position eight years ago and 22nd position six years ago. By 2017 it had slumped to 42nd position.

However, it's worth pointing out, when assessed on the score for the size of its overall gender gap, Australia has improved slightly.

Eight years ago it had closed 72.7 per cent of the gender gap. Six years ago it had closed 72.9 per cent of the gap and by 2017, it had closed it by 73.1 per cent.

Notably, Australia closed 74.1 per cent of its gender gap in 2014 and it has not been at that level since.

Professor Triggs is also correct in noting that Australia holds a number one ranking, along with other countries, when it comes to educational attainment.

Finally, Australia's overall ranking has to be seen in context. According to the World Economic Forum the 2017 global gender gap report showed that slow but steady global progress on improving parity between the sexes came to a halt in 2017, with the global gender gap widening for the first time since 2006.

Context for the claim

In her comments, Professor Triggs twice referred to Australia's ranking relative to the rest of the world.

First, when she refers to Australian women being "number one as educated women in the world" and again when she refers to Australia having regressed to "46th in the world and then slightly come back again to the thirties for economic participation...", it is evident she is referring on Australia's gender gap ranking compared to the rest of the world.

However, she also says "this is a profoundly unequal and unfair environment for women", suggesting that here she could be referring to Australian women's position within Australia, but this is unclear.

RMIT ABC Fact Check has assessed Professor Triggs' claim based on Australia's gender gap ranking compared to the rest of the world.

Understanding the global gender gap index

The World Economic Forum is a not-for-profit organisation that engages political, business and other leaders to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Every year it produces a global gender gap index, which, as mentioned, provides an overall ranking for countries on the gender gap between women and men.

It also provides individual rankings in four key areas: political empowerment; economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; and health and survival.

These rankings are drawn from the overall score that each country is given, and the scores that it is given for the four key areas.

The number of countries has gradually increased from 115 when the index was first published in 2006 to 144 in 2017. Eight years ago it was 134 and six years ago 135.

The aim of the index is to help understand whether countries are distributing their resources and opportunities equitably between women and men.

The rankings are designed to create global awareness of the challenges posed by gender gaps.

It's worth emphasising that the index focuses on measuring gaps in access to resources and opportunities rather than actual levels of available resources and opportunities in countries.

So, countries are ranked on their gender gaps not their development level.



"Thus, in the case of education, the index penalises or rewards countries based on the size of the gap between male and female enrolment rates, but not for the overall levels of education in the country," the 2017 report says.

How any one country performs on the ranking depends on how other countries perform.

The data used to create the index is taken from international organisations such as the International Labour Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Development Program and the World Economic Forum's own surveys.



How does Australia fare?

In 2017, Australia was ranked 35th on the overall ranking of 144 countries. The top three nations leading the index were all Nordic countries, with Iceland ranked first, Norway second and Finland third.

By way of comparison, New Zealand was ranked 9th, the United Kingdom was 15th, Canada 16th, and the United States was 49th.

Professor Triggs spoke of change "in the last six or eight years". Six years ago, in 2012, Australia ranked 25th in the overall gender gap ranking. Eight years ago, in 2010, it ranked 23rd.

Looking at the full 12 years that the index has been published, for broader context, Australia's ranking has worsened from 15th position in 2006, when there were 115 countries in the index, to 35th position in 2017, when there were 144.

Its lowest ranking was in 2016 when it regressed to 46th position, as mentioned by Professor Triggs.

On its overall score over the past six and eight years, Australia has improved, but only slightly, with 72.7 per cent of the gender gap closed in 2010 (eight years ago), 72.9 per cent in 2012 (six years ago) and 73.1 per cent of the gap closed by 2017.

The high point was 2014, when Australia closed 74.1 per cent of the gap.

Fact Check has compiled a number of graphs below showing Australia's ranking and score on various measures since the index was established.

The graph below shows Australia's overall score and ranking between 2006 and 2017.

Australia's gender gap index



Professor Triggs mentioned that Australia was in the number one slot for educational attainment, and that is correct.

Twenty-six other countries also held that ranking, including Canada, Botswana, France and Latvia to name a few.



But on the measure of economic participation and opportunity, Australia fares badly on its ranking and its score, particularly in the past six to eight years.

This category is calculated using data from several sources including labour force participation, wage equality surveys, estimated earned income and positions held by senior officials and managers.



Eight years ago, in 2010, Australia was ranked 24th for economic participation and opportunity. Six years ago, in 2012, was in 22nd position. But by 2017 it had regressed considerably to 42nd position.

In terms of its score, or the percentage of the gap that Australia closed on the measure of economic participation and opportunity, it has also gone backwards.

In 2010 Australia had closed 74.3 per cent of the gap. In 2012 it had closed 75.9 per cent of the gap, but by 2017 this had regressed to 72.4 per cent.

Australia's score for the percentage of the gender gap closed on the measure of economic participation and opportunity over the full 12 years that the index has been in existence, shows progress improved to a peak in 2014 (80.1 per cent) and then fell back sharply by 2017 (72.4 per cent) — below the 2006 starting point (72.6 per cent).

Australia's economic and political empowerment gender gap index



The other measure mentioned by Professor Griggs was political empowerment. This measure, among other factors, examines numbers of women in parliament and in ministerial positions and numbers of years with a female head of state in the last 50 years.



Again, Australia's ranking for political empowerment has regressed over the past six or eight years.

In 2010 (eight years ago) it ranked 38th; in 2012 (six years ago) it ranked 42nd; and by 2017 it had regressed to 48th position.



Australia's ranking in this category hit a low point during 2015 and 2016, under the Abbott and Turnbull governments.

In terms of the percentage of the gap that Australia closed on the measure of political empowerment, its score, while it has improved, remains fairly low.

Looking at the score over 12 years, Australia closed 16.3 per cent of the gender gap in terms of political empowerment in 2006.

Eight years ago it closed 19.2 per cent of the gap and six years ago it closed 18.5 per cent of the gap.

In 2017, it closed 23.2 per cent of the gap — an improvement, but still an overall low level of progress.

Australia's political empowerment gender gap index



The graph below shows the most up-to-date figures of the numbers of men and women in Australia's parliaments, according to the federal Parliamentary Library.

How do experts explain Australia's regression?

The University of Sydney's Professor of Gender and Employment Relations, Marian Baird, told Fact Check that the World Economic Forum global gender gap ranking was not an ideal measure of progress, since it was a ratio measure, but said Professor Triggs was correct in saying that gender equality in Australia had regressed.

Commenting on women's political empowerment, she said: "Australia does seem to have a problem with women in leadership positions … respect at work is seriously lacking."

But she stressed the index was a relative measure only: "I'm really wary of using the [global gender gap] report too often," she said.

"It's useful for rhetorical purposes, I don't know how much it's actually telling us about the absolute or objective reality of lives in each country."

International gender expert Jeni Klugman said the World Economic Forum index was useful in exposing gaps and performance relative to other countries, but noted that countries with low levels of absolute achievement could do well in the rankings if the gap between men and women was small.

Dr Klugman, a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, told Fact Check by email that Australia's ranking for women in national government continued to decline compared with other countries.

"The underlying factors that appear to explain Australia's relative poor performance include the lack of gender quotas, which have been widely used around the world, lack of proportional representation [in the lower house], women do better under the [proportional representation] systems, and the norms and culture which pervade political parties," she wrote.

"Turning to economic opportunities — we don't see much improvement in either levels of female participation, nor any closing of the earnings gap in Australia," she wrote.

She said a 2014 Australian Parliamentary Library research paper showed women's representation in Australian parliaments had increased by less than 10 percentage points over a 17-year period — increasing from about 21 per cent in 1997 to 29 per cent in 2013.

"The trend has not been one of continuous improvement, but rather fluctuations over time. The peak of 31 percent was reached back in 2009," she wrote.

Principal researcher: Sushi Das

Twitter: @sushidas1

Sources





