How To Deal With Gender Inequality In The Workplace

How to deal with gender inequality in the workplace is a difficult question for an individual, because the problem is structural and you are unlikely to have authority over the structure.

Some things are still within reach. Ask for the band or range for your role rather than negotiating in isolation, since individual negotiation is one of the mechanisms that produces the gap. Ask what the criteria for the next level are, in writing, and what evidence would satisfy them. Track your own contributions with dates, because visibility is unevenly distributed and memory is not neutral.

If you are senior enough to influence a decision, the highest-leverage act is insisting on written criteria before a shortlist or a pay round rather than after.

None of this is your responsibility to fix. It is what is available while the organisation catches up.

The Australian Human Rights Commission covers gender equality. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s EEO training course and diversity and flexibility course.