The third annual national Status of Women Report Card is out. See how Australian women's health is tracking.
Australia is making strides to achieve health equality for women and girls but there is still a way to go, the third annual national Status of Women Report Card shows.
The report paints a mixed picture when it comes to healthcare for women in Australia, and support for women working in the health sector.
Women are more likely to use health care services than men and are more likely to face higher healthcare costs over time, it found.
In health specific to women, four in five Australian women aged 18–44 years have experienced chronic menstrual symptoms in the last five years and almost half have missed days of work or study as a result.
One in four women aged 45–64 years reported that symptoms attributed to menopause make it hard to do daily activities.
The leading causes of loss of healthy life for women are dementia, anxiety disorders, and back pain. For men, they are coronary heart disease, back pain, and suicide.
In broader measures, the Report Card showed that the national gender pay gap was 11.9%, down from a record-high of 18.6% 10 years ago, and Australia was now ranked 24th globally for gender equality, an improvement from 26th last year and a significant improvement from 43rd in 2023, the report revealed.
Federal minister for women, Senator Katy Gallagher, said the Report Card was an important reminder that progress could not be taken for granted.
“The data shows that we can’t just focus in one area and expect everything will be okay – we need to focus on jobs and pay, paid and unpaid care, safety and health, representation and education,” she said.
“As a government we have made women’s equality a core economic imperative and that has allowed us to focus on all these areas and work to shift dials across the board.
“Our investment of more than half a billion dollars in women’s healthcare is saving women thousands of dollars through lower costs of contraceptives, opening more endo and pelvic pain clinics and ensuring more reliable support for women going through menopause.
“Our workplace reforms and investment in wages in aged care and early childhood education are helping to close the gender pay gap, while our reforms to Paid Parental Leave are taking some of the sting out of the motherhood penalty and supporting men’s care of their babies.”
Assistant minister for women Kate Thwaites said Australia was taking important steps forward in advancing gender equality.
“From our work to improve access and affordability of early childhood education, to reforming Paid Parental Leave to help parents share care, our government has been working for women every day,” she said.
“Our support for boosting wages in aged care and early childhood education, both highly feminised industries, has helped to bring the gender pay gap down.
“Today’s Report Card demonstrates how important it is that this work continues – we cannot afford to slow progress.”
Women’s workforce participation reached a record high of 63.5% in January 2025, compared to 58.6% 10 years ago. However, women make up only 39.6% of full-time workers, a small increase from 35.6% 10 years ago.
See the full report card here.