Throughout each priority area in this Strategy, employers are identified as key actors to support gender equality. The Australian Government, as a major employer, has an important role to play in modelling how employers can best support gender equality.
The Australian Public Service (APS) is leading the way through:
- achieving gender balance in the APS through target setting and data collection
- improving rates of staff working flexibility across departments
- improving APS First Nations recruitment to Senior Executive Service levels
- increasing APS parental leave to 18 weeks for both parents from 2027
- evaluating the Australian Public Service Gender Equality Strategy 2021–26 to ensure ongoing work is aligned with Working for Women and to accelerate the pace of change
- seeking opportunities for overarching structural improvements that support gender equality.
The APS recognises that work to address gender equality cannot be siloed. The APS will ensure alignment between its work on gender equality with other diversity and inclusion strategies and policies to address the experiences of all APS employees who have faced discrimination and disadvantage in the workplace.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency will continue to capture and use private and public sector employers' gender equality performance data to provide best practice examples and support organisations. The Government is committed to using this and other data from the APS to learn what drives gender inequality and what does or doesn't work, so it can improve – drawing on the experience of the APS to not just improve how the public service drives change, but what can be done more broadly to support women in workplaces across Australia.