Media Release
Friday 27 June 2025
More than 250 CEO and board-level leaders have publicly reaffirmed their commitment to lead on gender equality as a business, economic, societal and human rights imperative, captured in a new report released by Champions of Change today.
The report: Towards a prosperous, equal and inclusive future: Leading on inclusive gender equality, includes:
- Details of the Coalition’s impact so far and shared priorities to 2030
- A comprehensive review of strategies and actions led by the Coalition over the past 15 years
- National data tracking progress towards inclusive gender equality in the workplace
- Responses to recent challenges to the value and importance of workplace gender equality strategies.
It reinforces Members’ belief that when work is designed to be more inclusive for women, it results in stronger, safer, and more productive workplaces for everyone, benefiting individuals, families, organisations, communities and the national economy.
Champions of Change Coalition was established in 2010 by Australia’s then Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick AO and today includes CEOs, secretaries of government departments, non-executive directors and community leaders focused on delivering inclusive gender equality across workplaces by 2030, along with a significant and sustainable increase in the representation of women in leadership.
“When we started this work in 2010, it was unfamiliar territory for many leaders,” said Elizabeth Broderick AO, Founder of Champions of Change Coalition. “Today, Members from across every major sector of the economy, representing over 1.5 million employees, form one of the largest and longest-standing CEO-led initiatives of its kind in the world. In partnership with women leaders, our work has accelerated progress on women’s representation and helped to create more inclusive workplace systems and cultures. This is progress that would have been incredibly difficult to achieve working in isolation.”
“Having a shared strategy and collective accountability has enabled results that few believed were possible,” said Annika Freyer, CEO of Champions of Change Coalition. “Members have recommitted to finishing the job, especially in the places where progress is slow and inequality remains entrenched.”
National progress: signs of impact and stubborn barriers
The Coalition’s new National Workplace Gender Equality Tracker contained in the report shows Australia has made meaningful progress on gender equality, particularly in areas where long-term leadership and sustained action have reshaped expectations and outcomes.
Australia’s commitment to gender equality has led to real progress. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 ranks Australia 13th out of 148 countries—our highest position since the report began in 2006. This advancement reflects sustained effort across sectors to improve women’s political representation, economic participation and educational attainment. While global gender parity remains more than a century away, Australia’s progress shows what’s possible when leaders act with intent over time:
- Gender balance in leadership has improved across both public and private sectors, with Coalition Members outperforming ASX200 benchmarks for women in Executive Leadership Teams (Figure 1; Figure 2)
- Women’s workforce participation is at an historic high and while a gap to men’s participation remains, it is closing (Figure 5)
- Women are staying connected to the workforce for longer, expanding gender-balanced leadership pipelines and enhancing women’s economic security (Figure 16).
At the same time, significant challenges remain:
- Women remain underrepresented in CEO and leadership positions across the private sector
- Gender pay gaps still exist across most sectors, particularly in the private sector (Figure 13)
- Many industries remain highly gender-segregated, limiting pathways and opportunities for men and women and reinforcing unequal outcomes (Figure 7)
- Women’s economic security and remuneration continue to be impacted as they take on a greater share of unpaid care and are more likely to work part time, impacting career progression and long-term financial security (Figure 18; Figure 17). The long-term impact of these gendered economic outcomes is reflected in the ~30% difference in superannuation balances between men and women reaching retirement age (Figure 15)
- Caring responsibilities and workplace flexibility continue to be significant drivers of disparity, with women caring for school-aged children driving a significant portion of the gender earnings gap (Figure 22)
- While progress is being made to promote respect and safety, women continue to experience more instances of workplace sexual harassment than men (Figure 23) and are three times more likely than men to experience domestic and family violence (Figure 25).
These insights reinforce the importance of continued leadership, particularly in addressing ‘tough spots’ where inequality still exists and change is often hardest to achieve.
Leading the next phase of change
According to Chair Andrew Stevens, the Coalition will stay the course, leveraging innovation and disruption to accelerate progress. “We want to protect the progress achieved, tackle remaining barriers, and embed inclusive gender equality into major social, technological and economic shifts now reshaping our workplaces and society,” he said.
Priorities include:
- Rewiring leadership pipelines to support more gender-balanced CEO succession
- Partnering at national and sector levels to accelerate policy reform and system-wide impact
- Improving how data reflects demography and lived experience, using it to design workplace systems that support an increasingly diverse workforce and women facing compounded barriers
- Tackling occupational segregation, the part-time penalty and unpaid care load, which contribute to unequal pay and retirement savings
- Making progress where it’s hardest in high-value, high-profile roles and industries where women are still largely shut out such as in technology, construction, energy, banking and finance, operations, and frontline leadership
- Ensuring respect and safety become non-negotiable workplace standards and expectations, benefitting all employees
- Leveraging major industry and technological transformations to build inclusive gender equality into the future.
“This work challenges leaders to go beyond surface-level activity. It’s about making decisions and designing structures, cultures and systems that ensure gender equality is embedded into the future,” said James Fazzino, Co-Convenor of the National 2015, 2017 and Energy Champions of Change Groups.
“Collective, cross-sector commitment, backed by transparency and practical action, is what makes the Coalition model so effective”, according to long-term Champions of Change Director, Kathryn Fagg AC.
“We’ve made the most progress when we’ve listened, learned and taken bold and disruptive action. We’ve shared what’s working freely and widely to help lift the bar, and developed and measured ourselves against higher standards,” said Kathryn. “We have the strategy, the experience and momentum to achieve our vision.”
“This milestone belongs to every Member and every organisation that has stepped up to lead,” said Elizabeth Broderick AO. “We are also deeply grateful to the many visionary women leaders, activists and advocates for women’s rights and equality across Australia and globally who have informed and challenged our thinking over the past 15 years. Their courage, knowledge and advocacy continue to shape the Coalition’s priorities and actions. We thank them for their partnership and leadership.”
Download the report at: Towards a prosperous, equal and inclusive future: Leading on inclusive gender equality
For more information, please contact:
Rita Zonius, Communications Director, Champions of Change Coalition
m: 0434 608 829 e: rita.zonius@championsofchangecoalition.org