Benchmark, report analysis, discussion and recommendations of current gender status per industry in the United States of America and Australia
Gender Equality at Work
Ad Meliorem
ADM
Benchmark
I conducted a benchmark between Australia and the United States of America (USA) in relation to gender diversity and industry. Data was gathered from the Australia Bureau of Statistics and the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics. There are only a few differences in the organization of industries and data, nevertheless the results provide a good indicator of current status quo up to 2021. See Tables 1 and 2 to review the detail of the total numbers and percentages. A report analysis, discussion and recommendations are also provided.
In Australia the industries that are highly male dominated include (ranked list):
Construction with a ratio of 6.35
Mining with a ratio of 4.33
Transport, postal and warehousing with a ratio of 3.83
Electricity, gas, water and waste services with a ratio of 3.50
Manufacturing with a ratio of 2.38
In the USA the industries that are highly male dominated include (ranked list):
Construction with a ratio of 8.17
Mining and oil & gas with a ratio of 5.90
Transportation and utilities with a ratio of 3.15
Agriculture with a ratio of 2.61
Manufacturing with a ratio of 2.39
In Australia the industries that are male dominated include (ranked list):
Wholesale trade with a ratio of 1.97
Agriculture, forestry and fishing with a ratio of 1.86
Information media and telecommunications with a ratio of 1.36
Professional, scientific and technical services with a ratio of 1.32
Other services (e.g., religious services) with a ratio of 1.16
Rental, hiring and real estate services with a ratio of 1.10
Arts and recreation services with a ratio of 1.08
Financial and insurance services with a ratio of 1.06
In the USA the industries that are male dominated include (ranked list):
Information with a ratio of 1.47
Professional business with a ratio of 1.42
Wholesale and retail with a ratio of 1.27
In Australia the industries that are highly female dominated include (ranked list):
Health care and social assistance with a ratio of .28
Education and training with a ratio of .37
In the USA the industry that is highly female dominated include:
Education and health with a ratio of .31
In Australia the industries that are female dominated industries include (ranked list):
Retail trade with a ratio of .85
Accommodation and food services with a ratio of.85
In the USA the industries that are female dominated industries include (ranked list):
Public administration with a ratio of .94
Finance and real estate with a ratio of .93
Other (e.g., NFP) with a ratio of .90
In Australia the industries that have reached gender equality include (ranked list):
Public administration and safety with a ratio of 1.02, nonetheless, data indicates that male numbers are slightly higher than females
Administrative and support services with a ratio of .99, nonetheless, data indicates that female numbers are slightly higher than males
In the USA the industry that has reached gender equality includes:
Leisure and hospitality with a ratio of .98, nonetheless, data indicates that female numbers are slightly higher than males
Report
Based on data, analysis of this report is organized and presented as:
Highly male dominated industries
Male dominated industries
Highly female dominated industries
Female dominated industries
Industries that have reached gender equality
Highly male dominated industries. The results indicate that for both labour markets the construction industry is the number one ranked industry, and it is extremely male dominated. Moreover, and interestingly ranks are extremely similar for example, mining, transport, and manufacturing they hold similar rankings 2, 3 and 5 respectively. The difference is at number 4th ranked, for the Australian labour market it is the electricity gas, water and waste services industry and for the USA it is the agriculture industry. Relevantly the US Bureau of Labour Statistics clustered together the transport and utilities industries, and in Australia agriculture industry falls at the second level, hence, it is a male dominated industry.
Male dominated industries. Due to the way data is organized by each of the Bureaus, Australia’s list includes 8 industries, and USA’s list only includes 3 industries. Results show thought-provoking findings, for example, while in Australia the wholesale trade industry is number 1 ranked at male dominated industries, in the USA, it is the information industry, which is ranked number 1. Yet, the wholesale and retail industry in the USA ranks 3. As discussed earlier, the agricultural industry is highly male dominated in the USA while in Australia the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry, is only male dominated and falls with the number 2 ranking. In Australia, the professional, scientific, and technical services industry is number 4th ranked while in the USA the professional business industry falls at number 2 in the rankings. Australia has other male dominated industries not ranked in the USA such as other services, number 5th ranked, rental, hiring and real estate services ranked at number 6, the arts and recreation services industry that ranks at number 7, and the financial and insurance services industry, which ranks at number 8.
Highly female dominated industries. In relation to highly female dominated industries, the only difference is in the way data is organized by both Bureaus, for Australia, there are two highly dominated industries, the health care and social assistance industry which ranks number 1, and the education and training industry ranking number 2. The USA Bureau of Labor Statistics, clustered education and health industries together, consequently, it is the only highly female dominated industry in the USA.
Female dominated industries. Associated with female dominated industries, the results suggest important differences between the two labour markets, for example in Australia the retail trade industry and the accommodation and food services industry are female dominated industries and ranked respectively. While in the USA, industries that are female dominated include the public administration industry, the finance and real estate industry, and other industries, ranked respectively. Interestingly, results indicate that for the finance industry, the USA is female dominated, however, in Australia the finance industry is male dominated.
Industries that reached gender equality. Gladly, both labour markets have reached gender equality at some industries, for example, in Australia, the public administration and safety industry and the administrative and support services industry have reached gender equality and are ranked respectively. In the USA, it is only the leisure and hospitality industry that has reached gender equality. Although the percentage is 50-50 for these industries, it is important to note that there are minor gender differences.
Discussion
Fundamentally, at both labour markets there is prevalent gender inequality. Both Australian and USA labour markets are highly unbalanced - that is, the majority of industries are male dominated regardless of status, highly male/female dominated or not. More precisely the Australian labour market has 13 male dominated industries and only 4 female dominated industries. Whereas the USA labour market has 8 male dominated industries and 4 female dominated industries. Still and gladly, both markets have reached industries with gender equality, a couple for Australian and one for the USA.
The eternal issue here is that the economic structure for these industries is highly unequal. Male dominated industries are paid better than female dominated industries and those industries that have successfully reached gender equality. This inequality, is unfortunately reflected at the social level, those males and females working at female dominated industries or industries that have reached gender equality that do not have the support of a male or a female working at male dominated industries, will suffer or are already suffering financially. Moreover, and possibly more drastically, females that work at male dominated industries received lower salaries than their male counterparts, this is confirmed after reviewing many sustainability reports of listed companies that belong to either male or female dominated industries, subsequently, making gender inequality worse.
This labour structural mishap is very possibly built under the persuasion of highly male dominated industries, their understood roles, behaviour and idiosyncrasies. Subsequently, the majority (if not all) male dominated industries are based on hierarchy, strategy, formality, and rationality. In addition, since male dominated industries by design and based on social roles and stereotypes offer higher salaries than female dominated industries, controlling, influencing and managing such male dominated industries is more a matter of power than managerial skill. Keeping that power is critical to maintaining the economic benefit of male dominated industries, subsequently, laws, rights, governance frameworks, are mainly designed to protect that power resulting in intense negative, intangible and implicit outcomes for example, income inequality, showing extreme high favouritism to other men, frequent unfairness and constant greed. These outcomes, further exacerbate gender inequality at male dominated industries. The concern here, is that female dominated industries, inherit and somehow maintain a similar structure, for example, a highly female dominated industry in Australia is the public administration and safety industry, which is comprised of strong hierarchical structures and formality (e.g., titles, & office space). In addition, and unfortunately, in many cases, unfairness, favouritism and greed is worst in these industries than in male dominated industries, see the case of nursing homes in Australia (2020).
Even more concerning is that male dominated structures, are not only prone to negative outcomes such as greed, but they also have harmful consequences for the wellbeing, mental health of stakeholders and very detrimental for the environment. For example, in accordance to Safework Australia, by 2018 industries with higher worker fatalities occured at 4 of the highly male dominated industries, for instance, the transport, postal and warehousing industry had 38 fatalities and at male dominated industries such as the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry had 37 fatalities. From a USA perspective, and in accordance to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (2019), the industries suffering from higher fatalities are from highly male dominated industries, for example, at the construction industry the number of fatalities reported were 1,061. The transportation and warehousing industry reported 913 fatalities. The agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry reported 573 fatalities. The mining and oil & gas industry reported 127 fatalities.
In addition, for highly male dominated and male dominated industries in Australia, there is an excessive experience of bullying, wrongful behaviour, aggression and violence at their workplaces including the mining industry, the transport, postal and warehousing industry, the electricity, gas water and waste services, and the financial and insurance services industry. Sadly, the experience is also normal at highly female dominated industries, which from a structure perspective and as suggested earlier, are no different than male dominated industries, the education and training industry, and the health care and social assistance industry, are the industries that suffered from the highest experiences of workplace violence and aggressive behaviour, with consequences for mental health. Relevantly, the public administration and safety industry, which is an industry that reached gender equality, also has high records of bullying, wrongful behaviour and violence. This behaviour according to Safework Australia is related to 39% of mental disorder claims. Furthermore, the cost of these claims, lack of productivity and absenteeism is costing Australian industries AUS$ 6 billion dollars a year. In the USA it is the education and health industry, which is a highly female dominated industry that suffers most from bullying, aggressive behaviour and violence, as discussed this may be because female dominated industries are structured in a similar fashion to male dominated industries, furthermore and no surprise here, perpetrators are mainly male, the costs for industry, which includes litigation in the USA impact considerably the business bottom line, certainly, it costs businesses 22 billion US dollars per year in accordance to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Lastly, from a climate perspective, at both countries Australia and the USA, the high male dominated industries are the ones that have the most negative impact related to climate change, more precisely the mining and oil & gas industries in both countries, have influenced the deterioration of our climate heavily.
Recommendations
Male dominated industries
Power:
Awareness interventions to finding the appropriate way to manage power, its pros and cons
Internal communication campaign on how these affect the culture and climate
Integrate pros and cons at the code of conduct
Continuously communicate the code comprehensively and assertively
Emotion:
Awareness of the emotional climate (i.e., finding emotional experiences towards males and females)
Critical emotions to work on regardless of the emotional climate include:
Greed
Contempt
Anxiety
Fear
Love
Joy
Providing guidance for emotional episodes through
The code of conduct and the proper way to communicate when feeling certain emotion
Masculinism:
Developing interventions for providing awareness on healthier vs toxic masculine traits
Traits pros and cons
How these traits affect either positively or negatively, tasks and relationships
How do they see female staff at all levels of the corporation, working for their industry?
Adding traits to code of conduct
Proper and assertive communication of the code
Wrongful, aggressive behavior, bullying and violence:
Through surveys understand what precise wrongful behaviour and bullying is happening, normally these behaviors are covert
Working on de-objectifying both females and males
In relation to workplace violence, investigate cases thoroughly and communicate corporate wide the violent behavior (not the perpetrators)
For wrongful aggressive behavior and violence, communicate clearly consequences for the individual physical and mental (mental health), and for the business, the financial costs related to low productivity, absenteeism, law suites, and liability related to reputational damage
The identified wrongful, aggressive behaviors and bullying, should be added at the code of conduct and provide precise guidelines on how to minimize such behaviours and bullying
Show strong commitment and caring for individual’s wellbeing and mental health. The corporation should have zero tolerance approach for wrongful, aggressive behavior (if the perpetrators are identified, normally this behavior is covert) bullying and violence, this should be stipulated at code of conduct, and should be communicated comprehensively and assertively.
Female inclusion:
Cross validate data from asking men their thoughts about women in the industry, emotional and attitudinal surveys
Validate contradictions or consistencies
Fix contradictions by training and development, and fixing policies, communicate fixed policies
Re-evaluate for consistency at emotion, attitudes and thought
Once consistency is achieved, repeat same data collection for females, how do they feel, think and what their attitudes are by working in a male dominated industry?
Validate contradictions and consistencies
Fix contradictions by training and development, and fixing policies, communicate fixed policies
Re-evaluate for consistency at emotion, attitudes and thought
Once consistency is achieved and with data from both males and females
Redesign values for the organization
Redesign the code of conduct
Design – redesign the code of ethics
Redesign risk management framework
Redesign policies
Re-organize an internal communication campaign to advertise the new codes, values, frameworks and policies
Organize external communication campaigns at schools, and universities to promote the codes, values, frameworks and policies, aiming to encourage more females to apply for jobs at the organization or industry
Re-organize office space in accordance to the emotional and attitudinal climate
Income equality:
At male dominated industries should be no economic or financial impediment to deliver gender income equality at all levels of the corporation this can be expedited and facilitated by working on:
Power
Greed
Contempt
Attitude
Attitude:
It is critical for the corporation to understand workforce attitudes towards code of conduct, other males (e.g., executive team), female employees, policies, code of ethics, mental health, board of directors, compensation and work in general
Understanding attitudes will provide a solid awareness of the organizational climate and the engagement, motivation, loyalty towards the governance framework and the operating model of the corporation
The sustainability of the business is at stake by not understanding the workforce attitudes
Once attitudes are understood, design, training and development programs, modify the code of conduct and policies, prepare internal communication campaigns
Health and Safety:
Mental health. Because of the continuous aggressive behaviour & bullying happening at male dominated workplaces, the pressure to comply for men but also the pressure of not raising issues related to mental health, mental health awareness and mental health assistance are critical at male dominated workplaces
Providing training and development related to having people conversations and risks towards mental health
The code of conduct should provide guidelines on how to communicate upwards or downwards on aspects related to mental health issues, awareness and assistance
Once healthier and toxic masculine traits are identified, linked these to the risk management framework and their relationship to safety
While alcohol and drug test are now regular at male dominated workplaces, there is a lack for fatigue and metnal health testing
Testing for fatigue and mental health as important as testing for alcohol or drugs
Linking the consequences of toxic traits of masculinity or macho behaviour to safety should be a priority
From the risk management framework provide scenarios for decision making including the business bottom line, KPIs and financial structure and their relationship to safety, simulations can be of greater help
Making business sense and consolidation
Successfully managing gender dynamics at male dominated industries, should have a positive impact to the corporate accounts mainly through higher productivity, engagement and performance. When understanding clearly, power, emotion, attitude, masculinism, wrongful, aggressive behaviour and violence, they all have a relationship with the numbers, these should be consolidated appropriately and disclosed either at the sustainable or integrated report. Not disclosing it can be unethical and soon can be fraudulent
Female dominated industries and Industries that have successfully reached gender equality
Developing business structures, operating models, culture and climate that are gender equal
The majority (if not all), of female dominated industries and industries that have reached gender equality, surprisingly hold similar structures and operating models that mirror male dominated industries, nevertheless, this do not coincide with the female majority or a balanced workforce. The mirroring is unfortunately confirmed with the high levels of wrongful, aggressive behaviour, bullying and violence happening at these industries, which are characteristics of toxic masculinity. Hence, there is a need to balance such structures and operating models with female traits to successfully harmonize that business with existent male traits, and subsequently redesign the operating model and structure accordingly. The harmonization of the workforce should consequently influence positively a new corporate culture, climate and identity. It is hoped that gender balancing the operating model, structures, culture, and climate, at female dominated industries and industries that have successfully reached gender equality, will provide better financial outcomes so gradually, male dominated industries can validate the benefit and gender equalize their structures and operating models too
Feminism
Developing interventions for providing awareness on healthier vs toxic feminine traits
Traits pros and cons
How these traits are related to work
How these traits affect tasks and relationships
How do they relate to male traits, what can be embedded and what not?
Adding traits to code of conduct
Proper and assertive communication of the code
Power:
Awareness interventions to finding the appropriate way to manage power, its pros and cons
Internal communication campaign on how these affect the culture and climate
Integrate pros and cons at the code of conduct
Continuously communicate the code comprehensively and assertively
Emotion:
Awareness of the emotional climate (i.e., finding emotional experiences towards males and females)
Critical emotions to work on regardless of the emotional climate include
Greed
Contempt
Anxiety
Fear
Love
Joy
Providing guidance for emotional episodes through
The code of conduct and the proper way to communicate when feeling certain emotion
Wrongful, aggressive behavior, bullying and violence:
Through surveys understand what precise wrongful aggressive behavior and bullying is happening, normally these behaviors are covert
Working on de-objectifying both females and males
In relation to violence investigate cases thoroughly, and communicate corporate wide the violent behavior not the perpetrators
For wrongful aggressive behavior and violence, communicate clearly consequences for the individual including mental health, and for the business, the financial costs related to low productivity, absenteeism, law suits and litigation and reputational damage
The identified wrongful, aggressive behaviors and bullying, should be added at the code of conduct and provide precise guidelines on how to minimize such behaviors and bullying
Show strong commitment and caring for individual’s wellbeing and mental health
The corporation should have zero tolerance approach for wrongful, aggressive behavior (if the perpetrators are identified, normally this behavior is covert) bullying and violence, this should be stipulated at code conduct and should be communicated comprehensively, and assertively
Attitude:
It is critical for the corporation to understand current workforce attitudes towards code of conduct, male employees, female employees, policies, code of ethics, mental health, board of directors, compensation and work in general
Understanding attitudes will provide a solid awareness of the organizational climate and the engagement, motivation, loyalty towards the governance framework and the operating model of the corporation
The sustainability of the business is at stake by not understanding the workforce attitudes
Once attitudes are understood, design, training and development programs, modify the code of conduct, prepare internal communication campaigns
Health and Safety:
Mental health. Because of the continuous aggressive behaviour & bullying happening at female dominated workplaces, mental health awareness and mental health assistance are critical at female dominated workplaces
Providing continuously training and development related to having people conversations and risks towards mental health
The code of conduct should provide guidelines on how to communicate upwards or downwards on aspects related to mental health issues, awareness and assistance
Once healthier and toxic feminine traits are identified, linked these to the risk management framework and their relationship to safety
While alcohol and drug test are now regular at male dominated workplaces, there is a lack for fatigue and mental health testing
Testing for fatigue and mental health is as important as testing for alcohol or drugs
Linking the consequences of toxic traits of masculinity and femininity or macho behaviour to safety should be a priority
From the risk management framework provide scenarios for decision making including the business bottom line, KPIs and financial structure and their relationship to safety, simulations can be of greater help
Making business sense and consolidation
Successfully harmonizing females dominated industries and industries that have successfully reached gender equality with male and female traits, should have a positive impact to the corporate accounts mainly through stronger corporate culture and climate that should influence, morale, loyalty and motivation. When understanding clearly, power, emotion, attitude, feminism and masculinism, wrongful, and aggressive behaviour, they all have a relationship with the numbers, these should be consolidated appropriately and disclosed either at the sustainable or integrated report. Clear disclosure, should undoubtedly help to influence male dominated industries to also harmonized their operating models based on gender
If you want to successfully increase gender equality at work, getintouch, we will be delighted to help.
www.admeliorem.net
ph. +61490 247 772