Tackling gender segregation at work

Many workplaces still have women and men clustered in different roles, creating pay gaps and slowing progress towards equality. Fewer than one in four workers are in occupations that are truly gender balanced. That imbalance harms everyone. To fix it, we need to look closely at how our systems work and make deliberate changes.

What is gender segregation?

Gender segregation within the workplace (Indicator 7) is one of the 7 workplace gender equality indicators under the Gender Equality Act.

Gender segregation is when women and men are grouped in different kinds of jobs. For example, in Victoria’s public sector, women hold about three-quarters of administrative and caring roles, while men hold roughly three-quarters of infrastructure, field services, emergency services and transport roles.

This imbalance causes harm. It is one of the biggest drivers of the gender pay gap. It keeps wages low in majority-women sectors like health and care. It traps people in narrow career paths shaped more by gender norms than by ability or interests.

Why does this happen?

Many of us still hold old ideas about “women's work” and “men's work.” These beliefs shape who gets hired, how jobs are designed and what kind of flexibility is offered. Even when workplaces want to be fair, segregation can still appear through:

• bias in recruitment and promotion practices
• part-time and flexible work being limited to certain roles
• gendered language and/or images in job ads and job descriptions
• job design, timing of shifts, uniforms or PPE favouring a particular gender.

The current situation

The facts are clear. In 2023, Victoria’s public sector had a mean total remuneration pay gap of 15.1%. On average, women earned $20,375 less per year than men. A big reason for this gap is gender segregation.

Women make up 73% of clerical and administrative workers but only 12% of machine operators and drivers. In public health care women are 77% of the workforce workers but in transport, they are only 27%.

Some organisations have made progress since 2021, but others have gone backwards.

The Insights report: gender pay gap and other research shows what works. Organisations that set clear goals, tracked progress, and got leaders involved were more likely to reduce segregation. Where these things were missing, segregation stayed the same or got worse.

How gender equality action plans help

Under Victoria’s Gender Equality Act, every public sector organisation must develop a gender equality action plan (GEAP) every four years. These plans help organisations to drive change by setting goals, tracking data and taking action to fix problems like gender segregation.

The public sector employs almost half a million Victorians. When it leads on gender equality, it sets an example for the whole community.

If your workforce data shows gender segregation, your GEAP should include strategies to address it. Effective actions include:

• Flexible work options – set schedules, job-sharing, or flexible hours across all roles, not just some.
• Hiring and promotion checks – help you track who applies, who is shortlisted and who gets the job – to identify bias.
• Transparent reporting – share data about progress so staff can see what’s changing. This builds trust and makes leaders accountable.
• Inclusive job design – review job ads and descriptions to remove unnecessary barriers (like default driver’s licence requirements) and ensure language appeals to all genders.
• Leadership accountability – set and track targets to sustain progress.
• Safe workplace culture – address sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination. Traditionally masculinised industries and occupations often have higher rates of these problems.

Removing systemic barriers to progression – reviewing how opportunities like mentoring, training and leadership programs are offered and accessed. These initiatives work best when they change the system that shapes opportunity, not the people in it.

Lasting change usually needs a mix of actions. For example, reviewing hiring practices and pairing that with fair access to development programs supports a broader range of staff to stay and succeed. Encouraging men to take parental leave helps share care responsibilities at home, giving women more opportunities to progress at work to progress at work.

Case study: Barwon Asset Solutions grows gender balance in field roles

Barwon Asset Solutions saw that outdated assumptions about field work were keeping women away from these jobs. Outdated hiring practices made this worse.

The organisation started its “Designing for Diversity” campaign. The campaign changed how they presented these positions, showing women already working in field roles. It shared their stories across local media, community events, and online. This challenged community assumptions about who could work in the industry.

The organisation also overhauled its hiring practices:

• job ads were rewritten to remove bias
• selection processes were updated to be fairer
• managers were trained to support new hires
• progress was tracked through its GEAP to ensure accountability.

The results were clear. Applications from women increased from just 2 in one round to 20 in the next. More women were successfully hired. Gender diversity began to grow in one of the organisation's most male-dominated areas.

By combining cultural change with practical hiring reforms, clear targets, and accountability, Barwon showed how an organisation can reduce workforce segregation and open new career pathways.

Why fixing segregation matters

Our Insights report: gender pay gap confirms that reducing gender segregation is key to creating equality at work.

Men are still concentrated in higher-paid jobs, while women are clustered in under-valued caring and administrative work. These patterns drive pay gaps, limit leadership opportunities and waste talent.

Encouraging men to take up roles in health, education and care challenges stereotypes and fills critical skill shortages. It also helps lift the value of this essential work. Normalising parental leave and flexible work for all genders breaks the link between gender and job type – and helps redistribute caring responsibilities at home.

Addressing gender segregation benefits everyone. Organisations that broaden participation and representation:

• tap into wider talent pools
• improve retention of employees
• strengthen workplace culture
• narrow gender pay gaps (Indicator 3)
• support more equal access to leadership (Indicator 2)
• increase the uptake of flexible work and parental leave (Indicator 6).

In short, tackling segregation builds performance, fairness and sustainability.

Take action: Tools and resources to get started

Your GEAP must include strategies to fix gender segregation under Indicator 7. Practical first steps include:

• reviewing job ads and recruitment processes for hidden bias
• working to increase the talent pipeline of women entering majority-men fields and positions in your organisation
• working to increase the talent pipeline of men entering majority-women fields and positions in your organisation
• working to make sure gender-segregated occupations or industries are safe and welcoming to people of all genders considering secondments as a way to increase underrepresented genders in particular roles
• sharing staff stories that challenge stereotypes.

Download the full Insights report: gender pay gap to explore data and sector-wide trends you can apply in your GEAP.

Use the 2026 GEAP guidance to ensure your strategies and measures meet the requirements of the Gender Equality Act 2020.

By tackling the causes of gender segregation, organisations can create more balanced, fair, and effective workplaces and speed up progress towards true gender equality.