Blue Champions of Change Coalition banner reading ‘Solving gender segregation at work’ with the subtitle ‘A whole-of-system approach to drive productivity, boost workforces and advance equality’, over an abstract wave background with multicoloured lines and the Champions of Change Coalition logo.
Champions of Change have designed a model to solve gender segregation at work

The approach focuses change across five priority areas:

1. Social and cultural influences: Address outdated perceptions of occupations or sectors that can exclude women and girls
2. Engagement of the next generation: Engage and activate a diverse next generation of the pipeline.
3. Supported career pathways: Develop supported career pathways for gender equal and diverse talent.
4. Inclusive cultures and workplace design: Building safe, respectful and inclusive workplace cultures, products and services by design.
5. Leadership and accountability: Leadership engagement and accountability advancing inclusive gender equality

This guides our actions, informs desired collaboration with government, and shapes partnerships with industry and education. It also underpins our advocacy to address critical shortages in priority sectors.

Why solving gender segregation at work matters

Australia has one of the most gender-segregated labour markets in the world. Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) found only 1 in 5 occupations is gender balanced, and 70% of jobs have remained at the same level of gender segregation for 15 years.

Highly gender-segregated industries often face the most severe workforce shortages. In fact, according to JSA research, shortages are most extreme in occupations that are almost entirely dominated by one gender (73% of these occupations face shortages. For more information, see the Gender Segregation Intensity Scale). These include sectors and jobs essential to Australia’s future: energy, trades, construction, technology, health and care.

Current education and training pathways mirror patterns playing out in our workforces and as they currently stand, will not significantly shift the gendered labour market. Persistent gendered expectations—reinforced by cultural norms, school subject choices, lack of role models, and workforce experiences—limit the talent pipeline and hamper economic growth.

What solving gender segregation makes possible

Australia is facing persistent skills shortages across sectors that underpin our economy and daily life, from energy, transport and construction to technology, health and care. At the same time, existing pathways into these roles are not broad enough to sustain the workforce over time.

Gender segregation is a key driver of this challenge.

Solving gender segregation at work helps:

  • Our national economy improve productivity, economic resilience and reduce gender pay gaps
  • Our industries access widened national talent pools that increase innovation through diversity
  • Our businesses strengthen their workforce capability and supply
  • Our people to freely choose career pathways based on preferences unconstrained by social expectations

What Champions of Change Coalition and its Members are doing

Champions of Change Coalition was established in 2010 to advance gender equality across workplaces and increase women’s representation in leadership. This work has largely focused on sectors traditionally dominated by men where significant progress has been achieved as outlined in our Annual Impact Reports.

However, consistent with the JSA research, ‘toughspots’ have emerged in advancing gender equality and closing gender pay gaps across our Member organisations. These are largely driven by persistent gender segregation in roles, sectors and industries. A key insight is that organisations cannot solve these issues by working alone.

Drawing on our 15 years of experience and focused analysis of the engineering workforce, the Coalition developed a scalable whole-of-system model to help shape national approaches to solving gender segregation at work across priority sectors such as energy, construction, transport, manufacturing, finance, technology, health and care.

Collaborating to solve workforce shortages and advance equality

Australia cannot solve workplace gender inequality, skills shortages, productivity challenges, or innovation ambitions without tackling gender segregation at work.

We aim to work with government, the education sector and industry to:

  • Reimagine pathways into key sectors
  • Expand and diversify talent pipelines
  • Build inclusive workplaces and leadership
  • Drive long-term, structural change across the economy

About Champions of Change Coalition

Champions of Change Coalition works with senior leaders across business, government and community to achieve inclusive gender equality within a generation.

For 15 years, Members have been implementing practical, systemic actions that improve workplace equality—from safe and respectful workplaces, to inclusive leadership, to flexible work and transparent accountability.

Our work on occupational segregation builds on this foundation and extends well beyond individual organisational change to industry, sector and national transformation.

Learn more in our 15-year report: Leading on Inclusive Gender Equality – Our Actions and Strategy

If you are interested in partnering, learning more, or exploring joint initiatives to solve gender segregation, we invite you to request a conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Workforce gender segregation refers to the uneven distribution of women and men across different jobs and industries. This can occur at the organisation, occupation (occupational segregation) or industry (industrial segregation) levels. Gender segregation can occur vertically (i.e., a “ceiling” causes gender imbalances to increase with seniority) horizontally (i.e., a “wall” splits workforces by gender).  

Champions of Change Coalition has had a long-term focus on solving gender segregation within organisations. However, in Australia, only 1 in 5 occupations is gender-balanced, and 70% have remained highly segregated for 15 years. Organisations cannot fix this issue by working alone. Using our approach, we can collaborate with government, education and industry together to solve workforce gender segregation. 

Australia has some of the most gender-segregated industries in the world. The more gender segregated an occupation is, the more likely it is to face skills shortages with this most acute in the 74% of occupations almost completely dominated by men in shortage. This means there is limited access to talent, restrictions to innovation and a slow down in productivity growth.  

Men and women partake in Australia’s economy in almost equal numbers. However, when certain sectors (such as energy, construction, technology and care) draw talent from only half the working population, they face significant supply challenges. Gendered education pathways, limited role models and entrenched norms narrow the pool of people entering these fields, worsening skills shortages over time.  

The causes of gender segregation start early in life. Key drivers include social and cultural expectations that influence subject choices, limited career literacy in school students, a lack of visible diverse role models in a range of careers, uneven workplace cultures, and systemic barriers in training, recruitment and progression pathways. These factors reinforce each other across the education-to-employment pipeline.  

 

Our approach is a whole-of-system framework designed to address segregation at its roots. It focuses on: 

  1. Social and cultural influences 
  2. Engagement of the next generation 
  3. Supported career pathways 
  4. Inclusive workplace cultures and design 
  5. Leadership and accountability 

 This model guides Member actions, informs desired collaboration with government, and shapes partnerships with industry and education. It also underpins our advocacy to address critical shortages in priority sectors.  

It is important organisations look beyond the fourth priority area (inclusive workplace cultures and design) to take actions across all the five priority areas. These actions include advocating for careers support, modernising training pathways, improving access to earn-and-learn programs, piloting inclusive workplace design, supporting migration pathways and showcasing diverse role models. Collective action across sectors is essential for sustained change.  

The Coalition brings together 200+ CEOs, Secretaries and Directors committed to systemic change. Members are adopting the approach, , partnering with government and education, influencing policy, and testing practical solutions in priority sectors such as energy, construction, manufacturing and care. Contact us if you would like to get involved (click on the button above).

Workforce gender segregation is shaped by multiple systems—cultural norms, schooling, training, workplaces and policy. No single organisation can address it alone. Coordinated national action helps expand pathways, diversify talent pipelines, modernise workplaces and align reforms across sectors. 

You can partner with the Coalition to co-design pathways, participate in pilots, support awareness campaigns, embed inclusive workplace design, or collaborate on research and policy. We encourage you to reach out via the contact form.

You can download our Executive Brief, take a look at our Coalition’s 15-year report or get in touch with us if you want to work together to solve this pressing issue.  

Watch this space as we will be adding live in future phases, case studies to show the real-world impact of work currently underway. These resources help leaders understand the issue and take practical steps toward inclusive gender equality. 

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