Strathbogie Shire Council welcomes the Gender Equality Act which requires organisations within the Victorian public sector, including local councils, to demonstrate positive progress towards achieving gender equality in the workplace and in the community. As the level of government closest to communities, it’s vital councils reflect all the people they serve.
We have conducted workplace gender audit to assess its organisational performance against workplace gender equality indicators and then developed clear actions to improve our performance against these indicators over time through our Gender Equality Action Plan.
Gender equality is the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women, men and trans and gender-diverse people. Equality does not mean that women, men and trans and gender diverse people will become the same but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on their gender.
Gender equity entails the provision of fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities on the basis of gender. The concept recognises that people may have different needs and power related to their gender and that these differences should be identified and addressed in a manner that rectifies gender related imbalances.
Research shows that proactive approaches to gender equity have been proven to deliver measurable benefits, such as:
- increased productivity across an organisation
- improved performance in financial operations, innovation and safety
- reduction staff turnover
- a boost staff retention
- an improvement in access to new talent.
Gender equality is a human right, a necessity for social justice and delivers a range of other social benefits. Research also shows that gender equality is a precondition for the prevention of family violence and other forms of violence against women and girls.
