Page 801 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2005
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more suited to the early 20th century. Not only are women paid less for their time but they are generally being employed in traditional industries like clerical, sales, childcare and administration. Twenty-seven per cent of all women in the workforce are employed in the clerical sector, compared with only 18 per cent in professional positions. This means that fewer than one in five working women are in professional positions, compared to nearly three in five men.
For those who think the fight is over and equality has been achieved, I would challenge you to look at the statistics. This fight is not over here. Until the day arrives when I can rise in this chamber and categorically state that no Canberran is being economically discriminated against on the basis of their gender, until I can say that no woman is making choices based on what she believes is a reduced opportunity, the struggle will go on.
Gender equality is an issue that the ACT government takes very seriously. Over the past four years, the government has advanced opportunities for women in the ACT by acting in areas as diverse as protection against violence, maintenance of economic security, improvement of opportunities to access education and accessibility of women’s health services.
The ACT government is committed to continuing its dedication to ACT women by being proactive in its policy formulation and by consulting widely with women in the community. The ACT government has implemented strategies which have enabled ACT women to choose a career as well as choose to raise a family, through flexible working hours, improving the availability of affordable childcare and paid maternity leave for public sector employees. However, due to the penny-pinching of the federal government, affordable childcare is not as widespread as it should be.
There is a long way to go in the quest to have affordable childcare accessible and available to all and to make our workplaces more family friendly. But positive steps are being taken and women are increasingly being given the opportunity, as I said, to choose their future rather than have their career curtailed by their choice to raise a family.
I have other concerns, however. There is a long way to go to improve women’s general health status, for instance, in the areas of breast cancer and HIV/AIDS, which still pose a huge threat to women and their general wellbeing and the future health of their daughters. Research released yesterday by the federal minister responsible for women’s issues, Senator Kay Patterson, suggests that many women are still struggling with single parenthood and the associated threats to their health that are created by their hectic lifestyle—the lifestyle of juggling work demands and the demands of raising a family as well as trying to maintain personal health. This can be exhausting, and I can attest to this as I am a woman who has experienced this.
The ACT government is committed to ensuring that women are well represented among the leaders and decision makers in our territory. This is evident when you look around this chamber today and see that three out of the nine government members are women—a statistic which we can be proud of but one which should not satisfy us, as is obvious by just doing the maths.
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