Statistics confirm it's still a man's world

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This was published 11 years ago

Statistics confirm it's still a man's world

By Tim Colebatch

Men are better paid, but women are better educated. Men dominate the top executive jobs, at least in business, while women do most of the unpaid work and care at home. Women live longer, and are less at risk of violence – but only because it is mostly a case of men hitting men.

A data roundup by the Bureau of Statistics offers a diverse picture of the differences between men and women.

Men dominate the top executive jobs, at least in business, while women do most of the unpaid work and care at home.

Men dominate the top executive jobs, at least in business, while women do most of the unpaid work and care at home.Credit: Louie Douvis

Overall, it seems you're still better off to be a man: men get paid more but work less, when all the unpaid work is taken into account. Women are making up ground but the pace of change is uneven.

Take the broadest measure of income: hourly wages.

In 2006 the median male in a non-managerial job earned 9 per cent more per hour than the median female. By 2010 the gap had shrunk to 8 per cent. At that rate, it will close about 2040.

Or take an elite measure: executive managers in top 200 companies. In 2002 8.4 per cent of them were women; in 2010 8.0 per cent were women.

Almost half of the top 200 have entirely male executives. Only six of them have a woman as the chief executive, and 92 per cent of their directors are also male.

The public sector, by contrast, is changing rapidly. In nine years the number of women in the federal senior executive ranks has more than doubled.

Women now make up 38 per cent of senior executives, 46 per cent of lower level managers, and 31 per cent of judges and magistrates.

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The basic social divisions remain. Men work twice as long as women in paid employment; women work twice as long as men in unpaid employment at home.

Of elderly parents with disabilities being cared for at home, 92 per cent have a daughter as primary carer; only 8 per cent are cared for by their sons.

Women are doing better than men in other areas. On average, they live four or five years longer than men, although the gap is closing.

Young women are better educated than young men, and that gap is widening.

And, despite widespread perceptions, men are the main victims of crime (as well as the main perpetrators).

The bureau finds women are more likely to say they feel pressed for time, and are suffering from a high level of psychological stress. Yet they are less likely to suffer mental disorders than men, and less likely to be disabled.

The crime statistics show men are twice as likely to be victims of violence, and 50 per cent more likely to be robbed. But most victims of harassment are female, as are 85 per cent of sexual assault victims.

The bureau says males are more than three times as likely as females to commit suicide, nearly three times more likely to die in a car accident and 1.5 times more likely to die from cancer.

The suicide rate for males was highest in the age group of 35 to 44. In 2010 males accounted for 77 per cent of suicides.

Cancer is another leading killer of males, about 1.5 times the rate of females (224.2 per 100,000 for males and 139 for females in 2010).

with Andrew Stevenson

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