Julia Angrisano, national secretary of the Finance Sector Union (FSU) has pointed to there being no gender analysis of policy decisions and no discussion around addressing the impact the pandemic has had on women, otherwise referred to as the “pink recession”.
An FSU survey had found only 52 per cent of women were able to work from home, compared to 73 per cent of men.
Of the union’s members who were unable to work from home, 88 per cent of the female members worked in customer-facing roles, in contrast to 64 per cent of men.
“The first support withdrawn from the economy was free childcare which has a disproportionate impact on women,” Ms Angrisano said.
“During the peak lockdown period in Australia it was women who made up the bulk of FSU members who continued working in face-to-face banking roles.”
Women are also expected to disproportionately bear long-term consequences from the government’s early release of super policy, as they “already retire with superannuation balances less than half that of their male counterparts”, she said.
Also of note: a greater portion of casual workers in the finance industry are women (67 per cent compared to 56 per cent as the average across all industries).
The effect saw more women in insecure arrangements, with casuals being the first to lose hours and roles during the uncertainty, the FSU national secretary noted.
“Women make up 88 per cent of part-time workers and 54 per cent of the overall workforce, yet part-time workers received just 7.4 per cent of promotions in 2020,” Ms Angrisano said.
Sarah Simpkins
Sarah Simpkins is a journalist at Momentum Media, reporting primarily on banking, financial services and wealth.
Prior to joining the team in 2018, Sarah worked in trade media and produced stories for a current affairs program on community radio.
You can contact her on [email protected].
