Gender financial equality – Latest results from the Financy Women’s Index

The Financy Women’s Index (FWX) is a quarterly measurement of the economic progress of women and time frames to gender financial equality in Australia.

It measures progress on equality across 7 critical areas including both drivers and indicators. The drivers are Education and Unpaid Work. While the indicators are Unpaid Work (dual), Employment, Underemployment, Pay, Board Leadership and Superannuation.

The purpose of the FWX is to help drive discussion and action among women, men and key decision makers in the public and private sectors.

March 2024 FWX

The latest quarterly report released on 6 June 2024 includes a Thought Leadership Piece from Nat, which you can read here. Key highlights from the March 2024 FWX include:

• Progress to economic equality recovered in the March 2024 with the FWX increasing by 2 points to 78.3 points, from 76.2 points in the December 2023.
• The Index is now 3.66 points higher than where it stood in March 2023.
• The result suggests a rebound in economic equality after 2023 was the worst performing year in a decade for women’s financial progress.
• The key drivers of progress were improvements in Employment, as measured by monthly hours worked and a narrowing of the gender gap in the Underemployment Rate.
• Despite the gains in early 2024, progress has been undermined by a spike in gender-based violence in Australia and this Index explores this correlation.
• Timeframes to gender equality across the 7 measures at a best-case scenario were:
  • 5.6 years for ASX 200 Board Leadership,
  • 17.7 years in Superannuation,
  • 19.9 years in Underemployment,
  • 23.3 years in the Gender Pay Gap (as the median timeframe to gender equality)
  • 25.6 years in Employment,
  • 45.5 years in Unpaid Work
  • 389.2 years in Education.

Working for an equitable future is key

So, while there has been improvement this quarter the results show there is still a long way to go to achieve financial equity. As Nat highlighted in her piece in the report when women thrive financially, our families, communities, and the entire nation benefits and we need to aim for a future where everyone can achieve a secure and dignified retirement.

NGS Super has been a proud supporter of the Financy Women’s Index (FWX) since March 2023.