Imagine a place where all your dreams come true.
You can afford to buy your own diamonds. After all, Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
A place where you can look gorgeous, plan for your beauty therapies, travel on that overseas trip and pay for your own home.
Luxuriating in the tropics, skiing in Colorado, shopping in Paris while your smart investments take care of themselves.
Does it sound like a reality or a dream?
Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend…
Classic!
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Some hard facts were released this year by the Australia Bureau of Statistics revealing once again that women have a much lower superannuation balance than men of the same age.
The survey also showed that in 2014-15, the female labour force aged 20-74 years was 65.1% and 78.3% for men.
In addition to these figures, the bureau’s last gender release study showed that 44 percent of employed women worked part time in 2015-16, compared with 15 percent of men.
Gender workplace statistics at a glance…
February 2020
Workforce Participation
- Women comprise 47.4% of all employed persons in Australia; 25.8% of all employed persons are women working full-time, and 21.6% are working part-time* (ABS 2020, Labour Force).
- Women constitute 37.7% of all full-time employees and 68.2% of all part-time employees (ABS 2020, Labour Force).
- The workforce participation rate** is 61.4% for women and 70.9% for men (ABS 2020, Labour Force).
- The workforce participation rate among those aged 15-64 years is 74.5% for women and 83.1% for men (ABS 2020, Labour Force).
* Part-time refers to all employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week and either did so during the reference week or did not work that week.
** Participation rate is the sum of the employed and unemployed divided by total population from age 15 onwards.
Economic security
- The full-time average weekly ordinary earnings* for women are 13.9% less than for men (ABS 2019, Average Weekly Earnings).
- Among non-public sector organisations with 100 or more employees, the gender pay gap for full-time annualised base salary is 15.5%, and 20.8% for full-time annualised total remuneration (WGEA 2020, Data Explorer).
- The adult full-time average hourly ordinary time cash earnings** for non-managerial women are 11.4% less than for non-managerial men (ABS 2019, Employee Earnings and Hours).
- The median undergraduate starting salaries for women are 4.9% less than for men. This gap widens 14.4% for postgraduate (coursework) graduates (QILT, 2019).
- Median superannuation balances for women at retirement (aged 60-64) are 20.5% lower than those for men (ATO, 2020, Taxation Statistics 2016-17).
- 55.1% of people receiving the aged pension are women (DSS Demographics, 2019).
* Ordinary time earnings used comprise regular wages and salaries in cash, excluding amounts salary sacrificed. For more information refer to: <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0>
** Cash earnings used comprise regular wages and salaries in cash, including amounts salary sacrificed. Estimates of hourly cash earnings have only been produced for employees with a link between earnings and hours. For more information, refer to: <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6306.0>
Educational Attainment
- Of all women aged 20-24, 91.1% have attained year 12 qualifications or above, compared to 88.8% of men in the same age bracket. Of all women aged 25-29, 44.5% have achieved a bachelor degree or above, compared to 32.2% of similarly-aged men (ABS 2019, Gender Indicators).
- Women represent 58.7% of domestic students enrolled in universities or other institutions. This has risen from 57.6% in 2007 (Australian Government Department of Education and Training, 2020).
Paid parental leave
Of all organisations in the Agency’s 2018-19 dataset:
- 49.4% provide primary carer’s leave in addition to the Federal Government’s paid parental leave scheme (WGEA 2020, Data Explorer).
- 43.8% provide secondary carer’s leave in addition to the Federal Government’s paid parental leave scheme (WGEA 2020, Data Explorer).
Women in leadership
Latest results from the Agency’s 2018-19 dataset show:
- Women hold 14.1% of chair positions and 26.8% of directorships, and represent 17.1% of CEOs and 31.5% of key management personnel (WGEA 2020, Data Explorer).
- 34.0% of boards and governing bodies have no female directors. By contrast, only 0.9% had no male directors (WGEA 2019, Australia’s Gender Equality Scorecard).
Real-time statistics from the Australian Institute of Company Directors reveal:
- 30.7% of directors in the ASX 200 are women (Feb 2020).
- Women comprised 39.7% of new appointments to ASX 200 boards in 2019.
What does this mean?
The workforce reflects what many of us have known for eons, and some are coming to realize- the playing field is not equal and there are some very unhealthy financial attitudes and belief systems!
Often we see women standing at a cross road that is quite serious.
Perhaps they may find themselves unexpectedly single, possibly divorced from the ‘bread winner’ or maybe they have sacrificed much of their potential money earning capacity caring for young children.
If you are a financially independent woman, congratulations!
You are the minority. Many women are looking at retirement with a question mark, or find themselves pondering a new direction in business, employment or even saving for their child’s education.
Or perhaps the goal posts in life have changed, and they want to invest in a goal.
Control Of Your Money
The freedom that being in control of money brings with it socio-economic benefits, a healthier self-esteem and a life that is relieved of the stress of money insecurity.
Money does not guarantee happiness.
However, money uncertainty, the beliefs about money and the fear related to it certainly does provide misery!
So, with my development and implementation a few years ago of the Springboard Women’s Personal and Career Development program was a pilot that then gathered a small committee of 4 of us to run it for 100 women.
Being the President of the BPW Club of Canberra for a year in the 1990’s and on the committee in 2008-2009 of the Women in Finance organisation in Sydney.
(The bank girls took it over and now it’s the Women in Banking and Finance).
These experiences were so incredibly rich, because they provided invaluable insight. Hands on stuff.
Bridging the Gap
What came next for me was a no BS approach and practice into bridging the gap effectively. It is one thing to talk it; it’s a whole other ball game to walk it, then change it!
A metaphor I like to use. When you think about it, every part of wealth is mined from the ground.
Everything. It all comes from within the 
earth. Coal, Gas, Iron ore, metals and precious stones- diamonds, in particular, are a good example.
Our subconscious belief system comes from beneath the surface.
Because a collective belief exists about women, and it is changing, thank the ones who have marched before us!
I am very serious because when I tell you that these generational beliefs still reside under the crust of our conscious minds.
We Do Not Need to be Defined by Statistics
We inherit beliefs; we inherit habits, we inherit ideals. Sometimes we don’t even know they are there.
They are so deep down! We do not need to be defined by the statistics, we can defy that status quo if we know how to.
It is when a rock is put under enormous pressure and heat for a long time that a diamonds can form from a lump of coal.
Likewise, we can dig down, bring to light these beliefs we have, and cut away the rough edges with some real strategies to reveal a sparkling diamond with amazing karats and clarity worth more than you can carry.
We carry the diamonds within, because we are the diamonds.
Here’s the truth of the matter: my degrees in finance, business, teaching, psychology and all the rest of it has taught me plenty.
We can ALL find ourselves in a new place, a barren place that can be rife with fear and poor finances.
Therefore, if you learn some leveraging skills from someone that knows the hows and whys, and you break the habits with very real actions from the experts, guess what happens?
That beach holiday, those beauty treatments, the skiing trip or the philanthropy you love?
Any of those far-fetched dreams can and will become your reality. I know this to be true. So diamonds can really be a girls best friend.
What would a life well lived look like for you?
Philippa Hunt is a Woman on a Mission.
WiseGirls Money Academy was created after working as a qualified Financial Adviser for many years and deciding it was time to assist women who desired to learn and develop the self-empowerment to understand their emotional relationship with money, the skills and knowledge to save and invest. They wanted to learn how to create their own financial future and become financially capable.
The WiseGirls Money Mission is to provide the opportunity and place for growth and development of women of all ages in personal and financial skills in a supported female environment so that they take control of their future to reach their own financial independence.
