This report provides the most comprehensive picture to date of workplace gender equality across Victoria’s public sector.
It assesses progress at the end of duty holders’ first 4-year gender equality action plans under the Gender Equality Act. It draws on audit data submitted in 2021, 2023 and 2025 by around 300 public sector organisations. The dataset includes government departments, local councils, public health services, universities, TAFEs, water authorities, police and emergency services, courts and other public bodies, representing around 500,000 employees across Victoria.
This is the largest and most comprehensive public sector workforce gender equality dataset in Australia.
The report examines progress across the Act’s 7 workplace gender equality indicators at sector, industry, and occupational levels. It identifies where measurable progress has occurred, where inequalities persist, and where further action is required. Where possible, it includes data about people of self-described gender, as well as groups facing intersectional gender inequality. See Appendix 1: Data and methods for further information about how the Commission approached and incorporated this data.
While previous Commission reports established baseline conditions and explored specific issues in greater depth, this is the first report to assess progress across all 7 workplace gender equality indicators using longitudinal data collected over the first full implementation cycle of the Act.
The findings demonstrate that progress is neither uniform nor inevitable. Some industries and indicators show encouraging signs of change, while others remain largely unchanged. Together, these results provide important insights into how workplace gender inequality is evolving across Victoria’s public sector and where future effort is likely to have the greatest impact.
The report is intended to support duty holders, policymakers, public sector leaders, unions, peak bodies, researchers and advocates to better understand workplace gender equality trends and identify opportunities for sustained and evidence-informed action. However, it is not intended to provide detailed implementation guidance.
Throughout the report, the Commissioner outlines her future expectations of duty holders against each indicator in the sections titled ‘Commissioner expectations’. In 2027, she will publish further advice for duty holders, including the findings from the funded research project ‘Setting, implementing and achieving gender equality targets’.
How we rate progress
The Commission uses 4 types of progress ratings in this report. These include:
- Matrix ratings. These are used most widely throughout this report and use a matrix to assess progress. Matrix ratings consider current performance (if the industry or sector is close to, or far from equality for an indicator based on 2025 data) and the degree of change over time (how far an industry or the sector has moved closer to, or further from, gender equality).
- Holistic ratings. These are used to assess progress on uptake of part-time work, flexible work and parental leave. Holistic ratings are used when multiple measures must be considered together to understand progress.
- Proportionality ratings. These are used to assess progress on the gender composition of senior leaders. They consider the overall gender composition of an industry or sector to understand whether progress has been made towards proportional leadership representation.
- Gender-concentration ratings. These are specific to gendered segregation. They are used to assess the gender segregation density at the sector and industry level.
More information about these ratings can be found in Appendix 1: Data and methods.
The Commission also provides data and analysis about several types of ‘gender gaps’ in this report. Beyond the more familiar gender pay gap, these include gender gaps in parental leave taking, promotions, development opportunities and uptake of part-time and flexible work. You can read more about how the Commission uses ‘gender gap’ measures to reveal structural inequalities in Appendix 1: Data and methods.
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