Gender Equality

Position Statement

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is committed to
addressing imbalances and promoting gender
equality across the retail sector to improve choice, career
progression and financial security for women through their
working life and into retirement.

Equality is a fundamental human right for all, regardless of gender identity. For the Australian retail sector, the most immediate priority in terms of gender equality is to address imbalances between women and men.

ROLES

The ARA’s role is to unify our sector behind a common
vision for change, outline the policy and advocacy measures
that will frame discussions with government and other
stakeholders, and support our members’ efforts to address
gender inequality.

In addition, the ARA Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Advisory Committee will also:

Continue to shape, advance and promote gender equality in retail through the delivery of a suite of initiatives
Endorse a gap analysis against best practice and
prioritise areas of improvement for Australian retail
Work with the WGEA to monitor our sector’s progress
Partner with a range of industry experts to develop a set
of practical tools and resources

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

To meet our commitment of advancing and promoting gender equality in the Australian retail sector, we need to:

Focus primarily on addressing the imbalance between women and men in our sector but ensure that gender equality is not positioned exclusively as a ‘women’s issue’
Recognise that members may have different challenges and may require different solutions, given the differences between large national and international retailers, and our small and medium sized members who represent 95% of the ARA’s membership
Leverage expertise from the ARA’s largest members to uplift capability across the whole sector

ACTIONS

To improve choice, career progression and financial security for women in retail, the ARA believes the sector will need to:

Develop and deploy awareness campaigns, education events and forums to address sector-specific sexual discrimination and harassment issues, in line with Recommendation 47 for key industry groups outlined in the Respect@Work Report⁴
Identify opportunities to strengthen policies in relation to workplace sexual discrimination and harassment
Adopt a 40:40:20 gender mix in boards and executive teams, with an aspirational target that 50% of director and leadership positions should be filled by women by 2030, in-line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Take actions to address the gender pay gap and remove barriers to financial security for women in retail, through their working life and at retirement
Remove barriers that hinder women in retail realising their full potential, through improved flexibility, career pathways and return-to-work options for working parents
Advocate for more cost-effective childcare and increased flexibility in childcare arrangements
Offer equal access to parental leave and address the stigma of men taking on caring responsibilities
Support community efforts to address violence towards women and establish leave provisions to support victims of domestic and family violence
Remove rigid gendered stereotypes in advertising, product ranging and pricing, signage and visual displays

WOMEN IN RETAIL

SOCIAL IMPACT OF INEQUALITY

The Women’s Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reports that the pay gap for the retail sector is 13.7%. While this compares favourably in comparison to the rest of the economy at 21.7%, there is still more work to be done.

One side effect of this marked pay gap is lower retirement savings for women. Rest Super notes that women retire with an average of $289,179 in superannuation, in comparison to $359,870 for men.

In addition, complaints statistics released by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported that 76% of the 479 sexual discrimination claims in 2019-20 were made by women³ and the 2020 Respect@Work Report notes that women are 50% more likely than men to have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

This imbalance is generally worse for First Nations’ women, women of colour, trans women and women with a disability.

GENDER EQUALITY SYMPOSIUM CHALLENGING THE NORM

The retail industry needs leaders in positions of power to come together to lead tangible and sustainable change in improving gender equality across the retail sector in Australia.

In 2022, the ARA partnered with Deloitte for the inaugural Gender Equality Symposium. This event brought together Senior Executive and Board members from the ARA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee to share insights on how their organisation is advancing gender equality. We were pleased to return the event for 2023.

Click below to hear further insights from the event. 

The below case studies demonstrate the positive role that some of our members have already taken to establish a solid foundation for great things to come.