CHAMBER D&I SERIES |
The Future is 50/50: Creating Equality in the Workplace and at Home
In Australia, women spend 64.4% of their average weekly working time on unpaid care work compared to 36.1% for men. This disparity impacts women’s financial security and the economy, with unpaid work estimated to be worth 50% of GDP in both Australia and the UK.
The disruption of COVID-19 has led to many people are accessing remote and flexible working for the first time, revealing an opportunity to imagine a wildly different post-COVID working environment. Unfortunately, recent data shows that the pandemic has exacerbated gender inequality, with women more likely to face economic insecurity and a disproportionate share of childcare.
How can employers use this global crisis as a catalyst for positive change towards workplace gender equality? Can business play a role in changing social and domestic norms to drive equality? And what will it take to create a new normal that is truly 50/50?
Join our expert speakers to discuss how Australia and the UK is performing on workplace gender equality and how to balance the scales for men and women at work and at home.
Libby Lyons, Director, Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Australian Government
Libby was appointed as Director of the WGEA in October 2015. She oversees the statutory reporting process that gathers gender equality data from more than 10,000 employers and 4 million employees. Libby is focused on maximising the Agency’s world-leading dataset and expanding the impact of gender reporting nationally and internationally. As part of this, Libby has travelled to Singapore, Chile, Argentina, Mauritius, Indonesia, Vietnam, The Philippines, South Korea and Japan to speak with government and private enterprise on the business case for gender equality and the Agency’s dataset. She also presented at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York in 2018 and 2019.
Libby was listed in Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People Working in Gender Policy for both 2018 and 2019, is a member of Chief Executive Women and is a proud Ambassador for Honour a Woman, a volunteer organisation working to achieve gender balance in the Australian honours system.
Elysia McCaffrey, Interim Director, Government Equalities Office, UK Government
Elysia is the Interim Director of the Government Equalities Office and leads work on gender equality, primarily leading work to close the gender pay gap. This includes the development of gender policy, action to close the Gender Pay Gap, increasing the number of women on boards, increasing women’s political representation, tackling period poverty and representing the UK on gender issues nternationally.
The GEO looks to make the UK fair and inclusive for LGBT people and owns the Equality Act 2010.
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