4125.0 - Gender Indicators, Australia, Feb 2016  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 23/02/2016   
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DEMOCRACY, GOVERNANCE AND CITIZENSHIP

The Democracy, Governance and Citizenship section contains the following sub-topics:
    • Leadership roles (leadership in the public and non-public sector, membership of boards and governing bodies, judges and justices)
    • Recognition of outstanding achievement and service (Order of Australia awards)
Detailed data for these sub-topics is available from the Downloads tab, above (see Table 6).


HIGHLIGHTS

Leadership roles

Non-public sector
    While the proportion of women CEO's decreased slightly between 2013-14 (15.7%) and 2014-15 (15.4%), the proportion of women who were key management personnel increased from 26.1% to 27.4%. Women chairs of governing bodies/boards also increased in this time, from 12% to 14.2% (see Table 6.2).
Parliamentarians
    In January 2016, women made up 30.5% of federal parliamentarians, exactly the same as January 2015. While this rate has been relatively stable for a number of years, it has risen by 5.5 percentage points since 2001. There continued to be higher proportions of women in the Senate (38.2%) than in the House of Representatives (26.7%). See Figure 1 below, and Table 6.4 via the download tab for more detail.

    Graph Image for Figure 1 - Federal parliamentarians (House of Representatives and Senate), by sex, 2001 - 2016 (a)

    Footnote(s): (a) Reference period is as at 1 January in each year. These figures are calculated according to the current number of parliamentarians, and do not include vacant seats.

    Source(s): Australian Parliamentary Library



    In January 2016, 33% of state/territory parliamentarians were women (up by almost 11 percentage points since 2001).
Public Sector
    In line with the long term trend since 2001, the proportion of women senior executive managers in the Australian Public Service grew from 40.5% in 2014 to 41% in 2015, despite the ongoing decrease in total numbers since 2012. Just under 48% of executive level staff were women. See Table 6.6 for more detail.

Recognition of outstanding achievement and service

Order of Australia: nominations and awards
    In 2015, 31% of all nominations for the Order of Australia (General Division) were for women, in line with the long term average of 30% between 2001 and 2015 (see Table 6.8). Although more men received nominations, three quarters (75%) of female nominees received an Order of Australia, compared with 68% of male nominees.

    There are four award levels to the Order of Australia (Military Division). They are the Companion (AC), Officer (AO), Member (AM) and Medal (OAM) of the Order (see Table 6.9). In 2015, 6% of female recipients and 10% of male recipients received a higher level Order (AC or AO). Between 2001 and 2015, the proportion of women receiving a higher level Order rarely equalled or exceeded the proportion of men.

    Between 2001 and 2015 there were no women awarded an AC or AO in the Military Division. Two women (4.9%) were awarded an AM or OAM in this division in 2015 (see Table 6.9).
Order of Australia: Community Category
    Since 2001, the community category has received the most nominations and generated the most Order of Australia awards of any of the 31 categories, with roughly half of all awards nominated and granted being for services to the community. Between 2001 and 2015, nominations for men outnumbered those for women at a rate of 2:1 (see Figure 2 below), however women were more likely to receive an award if they were nominated (an average of 62% compared with 53% of male nominees over that time). In 2015, 79% of female nominees and 67% of male nominees received an award in the community category. See Table 6.10 via the Downloads tab for more detail.

    Graph Image for Figure 2 - Order of Australia nominations and awards, Community category, by sex, 2001-2016 (a)(b)

    Footnote(s): (a) Nominations considered by the Council for the Order of Australia. (b) Includes all levels of the award, that is, Companion of the Order (AC), Officer of the Order (AO), Member of the Order (AM), and Medal of the Order (OAM).

    Source(s): Australian Parliamentary Library