Timeframe shortens to achieve gender equality in super

The Financy Women’s Index (FWX) has revealed a new time frame to achieve gender equality in superannuation, down to 33 years.

According to recent figures from the Financy Women’s Index in the 2022 September quarter, the time frame to narrow the gender gap in superannuation continued to improve.

From previous predictions of 33 years at the start of the year, the FWX now estimated a 19-year time frame to gender equality in this area.

It also recommended superannuation payments be included as part of Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave changes.

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The FWX measured the economic progress of women in Australia across seven key areas: superannuation, pay, board leadership, education, unpaid work, employment, and underemployment.

However, while women’s financial progress was tracking higher in 2022, it was still lower year-on-year and the index indicated it would take 23 years to achieve gender financial equality at its current pace.

The superannuation sub-index showed improvements after the gender gap in retirement savings narrowed at the start of the pandemic, as per ABS data released in April. Still, it has the third-highest time frame to economic gender equality after education (139 years) and unpaid work (59 years).

“There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that Australian women fully recover financially from the pandemic and aren’t economically penalised for the choices they make in areas such as education and employment,” noted Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, author of the FWX.

“While it is encouraging that the FWX is tracking stronger in 2022, up 0.2 points, it is still concerning that, in annual terms, the FWX remains 1.6 points lower than the record 75-points achieved in September 2021 and September 2020.”

The FWX area with the smallest time frame was board leadership at 6.1 years, down from 6.2 in the June quarter.