The Financy Women’s Index down in March

The Financy Women’s Index (FWX) fell 01.point to 76.1 points in the March quarter for the second quarter in a row as the gender gap in the underemployed widened and women’s financial progress weakened.

At the same time, the data showed the March quarter showed improvement in board leadership, with women now accounting for 36% of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) 200 board directors.

Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, founder of Financy, said that as interest rates were climbing, so was the female underemployment rate.

Financy also welcomed the May Budget on women but said there were still missed opportunities, in particular with regards to superannuation on paid parental leave and time targets on gender equality.

“Given that the gender gap in underemployment rate has widened in an environment of higher interest rates for the past two quarters, the risk is that this is not an aberration and that this may continue, resulting in higher female unemployment and a greater financial strain on women, particularly those on low incomes or single parent families,” Hartge-Hazelman said.

“This would be a blow to the financial progress of Australian women and cement the view that they are the shock absorbers of high cost of living pressures, more than men. This could weigh on the annual pace of progress towards gender equality beyond the next June quarter.”

Commenting on the May Budget and its goals towards gender financial equality, AMP Capital’s chief economist, Shane Oliver, said he would like to have seen more to improve gender equality in a fundamental way.

“Paying super on paid parental leave or – even better – measures to encourage more women into courses that lead to higher pay, would be considered fundamental,” he said.

As far as the outlook for gender equality timeframes in Australia was concerned, progress was happening slowly, with the biggest challenges in those areas affected by persistent gender norms such as education and unpaid work, Financy said.

According to the company’s founder, especially education and expected earnings had a worrying timeframe to equality, of 139 years.

Looking at the other areas measured by the index, the median timeframe to equality is represented by the gender pay gap, at 24 years.

The firm said it was a slightly worse result than the 22 years in the December 2021 quarter. However, the recent improvement in the gender pay gap to 13.3% from 14.1% in the December quarter provided hope that this should start to come down if that change continued.