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Views towards gender equality in Australia

2 Mar 2021

Q. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about gender equality in Australia?

TOTAL: Agree Mar’21 Change from Jun’20 Jun’20 Sep’18 Mar’16
Gender equality, meaning that men and women are equal, has come far enough already 45% -2% 47% 47% 38%
Gender equality has already been mostly achieved 50% -1% 51% 47% 41%
Work to achieve gender equality today benefits mostly well-to-do people 60% +4% 56% 45% 39%
There should be laws that require equal salaries for men and women in the same position 83% +3% 80% 78% 78%
Although there has been significant progress on gender equality there is still a long way to go 76% +5% 71% 66% 71%
Base (n) 1,074 1,085 1,030 1,001
  • 76% of people agree that although there has been significant progress on gender equality there is still a long way to go (up 5 percentage points since June last year) and consistent with the upwards trend since Sep’18.
  • 60% now think work to achieve gender equality today benefits mostly well-to-do people and 83% think there should be laws that require equal salaries for men and women in the same position. Agreement towards these statements has risen slightly by 4 and 3 percentage points respectively since Jun’20.
  • Slightly fewer think gender equality has come far enough already (down 2 percentage points to 45%) and half (50%) still think gender equality has already been mostly achieved.
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