Gender Equality Action Plan

Our foundational pillars support our gender equity aspirations – we care deeply, we are resourceful, we have pride and a strong commitment.

Our first Gender Equality Action Plan is a critical step in planning, implementing and measuring the change we all seek. It also will be a significant enabler of our ambition to become an employer of choice in our diverse region.

Gender Equality Action Plan 2021-25

Our Gender Equality Action Plan for 2021-2025:

• maps our journey toward gender equality, from where we are in 2021 to the outcomes we want to achieve by 2025
• addresses the seven workplace gender equality indicators that represent the key areas where workplace gender inequality persists and where progress towards gender equality must be demonstrated.

Progress report 2021-23

We developed our first Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) in 2021 to meet our obligations under the Gender Equality Act 2020 and continue our enduring focus to progress gender equality in the workplace.

Gender inequality is where women and men do not have equal social status, power, resources or opportunities, and their voices, ideas and work are not valued equally by society.

Gender equality matters because equality matters - women and girls deserve to be treated as equals. Every workplace conversation, policy and action has the potential to either reinforce or challenge gender inequality.

We are proud to state that we’ve made strong progress in completing our committed strategies and actions in our Gender Equality Action Plan up to June 2023.

Key highlights - Our progress 2021-2023

Increase in flexible work arrangements

We know flexible working makes sharing the caring load easier and breaks down the stereotypical expectation that women play the primary carer role at home.

90% of Greater Western Water people work flexibly, with 49% men and 51% women.

There’s been a 4% increase in the number of part time roles held by men, up from 17% in 2021. There’s also been an increase in the number of part time roles at the senior leadership level, from zero to three roles in 2023.

Parental leave uptake

There has been a noticeable increase in men at GWW taking parental leave, with a rise in the duration of leave taken from 6 weeks to an average 8.9 weeks since 2021.

Leadership, representation and decision making

To support an equitable and inclusive workplace, we have put in place systems and process improvements to support our Gender Equality Action Plan. We’ve updated our attraction, recruitment and selection processes to ensure we are encouraging a diverse range of applicants to apply and have an equitable process to select.

We have met and maintained our target of 45-55% of women in our workforce, and women in leadership. This includes 60% representation of women in board level roles.

Our focus areas for 2024-2025

We have three main focus areas for improvement in 2024-2025

Address the Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is a measure of how we value the contribution of men and women in the workforce. Our Gender Pay Gap is currently 11.1%, based on the median base salary. This has decreased from 2021 across the average and the median both for base and total remuneration. We will address the gender pay gap through improved tracking and ongoing delivery of our Gender Equality Action Plan.

Improve gender representation across job types

Women make up 29% of our technical and trade roles. We’ve committed to creating more opportunities for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Begin the process to collect additional diversity data

We are planning to collect additional diversity data which will allow us to not only track gender, but also assess how well our workforce reflects the diversity of our customers and community that we serve. Additionally, it will helps us to identify areas for improvement in promoting intersectional equality.

Intersectional inequality is where inequality is further increased for women based on overlapping attributes such as Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion and sexual orientation. This data will help us understand and address this inequality.

To view details of our progress, read the full report or the infographic that summarises our key achievements:

GWW employee data

To view Greater Western Water’s employee data showing progress across the seven gender equality indicators, view the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector report.