South Australia was the first state to implement anti gender discrimination laws in Australia with the introduction of the 1975 sex discrimination act (SA) (Genovese, 2010). It wasn’t until 1984, several years after Australia’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, the commonwealth enacted the sex discrimination act 1984 on a federal level (Genovese, 2010). Under the amendments of this legislation “The Act protects people from unfair treatment on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, marital or relationship status, pregnancy and breastfeeding” (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014). In a bid to govern the success of the sex discrimination act of 1984 the Australian Human Rights Commission Act was promulgated in 1986. In conjunction with the newly established Act, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was founded (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014). Correlating with acts such as the sex discrimination act, the commission aims to “promote …show more content…
In order to achieve equality and break the glass ceiling, the wage gap between male and female employees must be eradicated. The dissimilarity of wages earned between genders can be linked to discrimination against women and other influential aspects relating to the same conformities. According to The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal (OCT, 2014, pg. 6) the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick stated that “Gender stereotyping, industry and occupational segregation, caring responsibilities, discrimination and under-representation of women in leadership positions, particularly in male-dominated industries, are among the key factors contributing to lower wages among female workers”(Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, 2014). Data collected from 1994 to 2014 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showed that in May 2014 the national gender pay gap of 18.2% had widen by 1.9% from 1994, overall States and Territories, Western Australia had the largest pay gap difference of 24.8% (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2014). In addition to the national gender pay gap, the data also concluded that the health care and social assistance sector had the largest gender pay gap of 30.7% (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2014). Although the national statistics may be perceived as controversial as the data only accounts for full time workers’ (wages), there is still an obvious