Flexible work fails to follow women into leadership

While a greater number of women are advancing into management roles, inflexible leadership positions and unequal caring responsibilities are forcing more women to leave senior positions.

The Gender Equality Insights 2026: Unlocking Australia's Workforce Potential report, by the Bankwest Curtin Economic Centre (BCEC) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), found that workplace gender equality has improved, employers are still losing experienced talent before it reaches the highest levels.

BCEC director and report co-author Alan Duncan said stronger promotion rates for women at some stages of their careers did not translate into equal representation at the top.

"Promotion rates tell us who is taking the next step. We also need to understand who keeps progressing through successive leadership tiers - and who stays," Duncan said.

The report found a significant gap between the availability of flexible work and its accessibility to senior employees. More than 90% of organisations offer flexible start and finish times in 2024-25, while 86% offered part-time work. However, just 13.2% had designed management roles to be performed part-time.

BCEC senior research fellow Silvis Salazar said flexibility needed to be embedded in career pathways rather than becoming a barrier to advancement.

"Offering part-time work is very different from designing senior jobs that can actually be done part-time," Salazar said.

The findings also highlighted the influence of unpaid care, with women undertaking more domestic work than their partners even when both work full-time. Only 11% of organisations had a target to increase men's use of parental leave.

WGEA chief executive Christine Castley said employers needed to examine how recruitment, promotion, retention and working arrangements shaped the talent pipeline.

"Making better use of the talent already available to us is good for workplace gender equality, good workforce strategy and good business," Castley said.

The analysis also found ASX-listed employers with more women in leadership consistently outperformed peers on measures including market value and investor returns.

The report recommends stronger workforce data, clearer leadership pathways, targeted action on pay gaps and flexible senior roles that allow employees to progress while managing caring responsibilities.