NSW Women’s Strategy 2025 Report Card
This 2025 report card measures the progress of the NSW Government on gender equality in line with the NSW Women’s Strategy 2023 - 2026 Outcomes and Evaluation Framework.
Case Studies - Impact Across NSW
The selected case studies highlight the NSW Government's strong commitment to advancing gender equality by supporting initiatives that directly empower women and girls across our state. These efforts promote equal access to resources, opportunities, and connection across a variety of sectors and industries, and are informed by the 3 Pillars of the NSW Women’s Strategy. These Case Studies exemplify how the Government can positively improve the lives of women and girls and drive towards gender equality.
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Women in Construction Program
The goal is to increase the participation and retention of women in trade and non-traditional roles in the construction sector.
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National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy – Girls Academy
An Aboriginal-led not-for-profit, to deliver a Girls Academy program for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander secondary students in NSW public schools.
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Women in Business Program – TAFE NSW
Launched in January 2020, the program aims to empower women running small businesses in New South Wales.
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Aboriginal Child and Family Centres – Guwaabal Wayaama-dhi
A project created by the Winanga-Li Aboriginal Child and Family Centre to support the new Aboriginal Languages Curriculum, which includes engagement with local Elders.
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Free Menstrual Hygiene Products in Schools
The program aims to reduce barriers that prevent students from participating fully in school life.
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Community Programs for Migrant and Refugee women – Multicultural Women’s Hub
The aim is to break down barriers to participation for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds through education, work, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
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Daughters and Dads: Active and Empowered Program
A unique program for fathers or father figures (stepfathers, grand-fathers, uncles, older brothers or trusted family friend) and their primary school aged daughters.
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Investing in Women – Girls on Fire Program
The program provides annual funding totaling $1 million to projects across NSW designed to advance the role, status and contribution of women and girls.
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NSW Netball Storytelling Workshop
The Office of Sport and Netball NSW partnered to host this workshop. Storytelling is the single most powerful way to effect change.
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InnovateHER Forum
The forum provided the sport sector and partners with an opportunity to learn, be inspired and to celebrate innovation for women and girls.
Outcomes and indicators
The NSW Women’s Strategy 2023 - 2026 Outcome and Evaluation Framework establishes outcomes and indicators for monitoring under three key pillars. These have been summarised below:
| Pillar 1: Economic opportunity and advancement | |
|---|---|
| Long-term outcomes | Women and girls have equal access to work, economic opportunities, and financial security and wellbeing throughout their life stages. |
Outcome indicators
The labour force participation rate for women aged 15 years and over in NSW is 62.6%. This is lower than men, at 70% (2024).1
- Among those employed in the NSW Government sector who take paid parental leave, men take an average of 37 days of paid parental leave in a calendar year, compared to 44 days for women (2024).2
- For those in NSW who report taking paid parental leave in last 12 months, 55% are women and 45% are men (2022).3
- 23.7% of women who want to work are not actively looking for work due to childcare, compared with 3.5% of men (2024).4
- Occupational segregation means whether there is a larger-than-expected presence of one gender over another in a given field of occupation. NSW is currently at a moderate level (0.402) according to The Duncan Segregation Index, which is based on a scale of zero to one (2022).5
- The proportion of female employees in the top 4 male-dominated industry groups (mining; construction; electricity, gas, water and waste services; and transport, postal and warehousing) is 16.2%, compared with 83.8% for male employees, or approximately one in every five employees (2024).6
- The gender pay gap in NSW is 11.5% (2025) or $12,465 less per year compared with men (2024).7
- In the NSW public sector, the gender pay gap is at 7.2%. On average, a woman working in the NSW public sector earns $7,674 per year less than a man (2024).8
The self-reported median total personal income of women aged 15 years and over in NSW is $43,000. This is lower than men’s self-reported median income of $62,053 and equates to a median difference of $19,053 per year (2024).9
1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Labour Force, Australia, November 2024.
2 NSW Premier’s Department, Workforce Profile Report, 2024.
3 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, 2022.
4 ABS, Potential Workers, February 2024.
5 HILDA Survey, 2022
6 According to the Duncan Segregation Index. Source: ABS, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, November 2024.
The Duncan Segregation Index measures the segregation in a field, for example, field of occupation or industry. Values can range from 0, which represents no segregation, to 1, which represents complete segregation. Lower values indicate lower segregation.
7 Mining; construction; electricity, gas, water and waste services; transport, postal and warehousing. Source: ABS, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, November 2024.
8 ABS, Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, November 2024.
The gender pay gap in NSW is the difference in the average weekly ordinary full-time earnings of women and men in the workforce, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings.
9 NSW Premier’s Department, Workforce Profile Report, 2024.
| Pillar 2: Health and wellbeing | |
|---|---|
| Long-term outcomes | Women and girls are safe in their relationships and communities and have access to services and support that meets their needs. |
Outcome indicators
- The rate (per 100,000 population) of female victims of violent offences recorded by the NSW Police Force is 1,374.7 (2023/2024).1
- 79.1% of women in NSW are very satisfied that they feel safe, compared with 80.3% of men (2022).2
- Approximately 18.4% (3,363) of women who were homeless at the beginning of the financial year were no longer homeless by the end of that same year after receiving assistance from specialist homelessness agencies (2023/2024).3
67.7% of women in NSW report feeling very satisfied with their lives. This is similar to men, at 68.5% (2022).4
1 NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), unpublished data request, 2023/2024.
2 HILDA Survey, 2022.
3 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Specialist Homelessness Services Collection data cubes, 2023/2024.
4 HILDA Survey, 2022
| Pillar 3: Participating and empowerment | |
|---|---|
| Long-term outcomes | Women and girls experience equal status with men and boys, are recognised for their leadership, and valued and respected for their diversity. |
Outcome indicators
- Women account for only 8.4%, completed apprenticeships or traineeships in ‘non-traditional’ fields (IT, engineering, agriculture, and architecture) in NSW (2024).1
- 57% of HSC awardees girls in NSW are enrolled in 2 or more STEM subjects, compared to 68% of boys (2024).2
- Women make up over 40% of people completing apprenticeships/traineeships (2024).3
- Less than half of people from diverse backgrounds in NSW who complete an apprenticeship or traineeship are women (2024)4
- 48.5% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,
- 43.2% of people with disability,
- 40% of people living outside major cities,
- 47.6% of people with a first language other than English.
- Girls complete Year 12 at a higher rate than boys (74% compared to 64.2%).5
- Completion rates for Year 12 are greater for girls from a high socioeconomic background (81.6%) than from a low socioeconomic background (56.4%).6
- Year 12 completion rates for girls living in inner regional areas (63.8%) and outer regional or remote areas (57.8%) are lower than those of girls in major cities (77%) in NSW (2024).7
- 45% of directors on the boards of NSW State Owned Corporations and Public Financial Corporations are women. This is below the NSW Government’s gender diversity target of 50% (2024).8
- In the NSW public sector, percentage of Senior Executive roles or equivalent grades is 44.7% (2024).9
- In the NSW workforce, 43.3% of managers are women (2024).10
- 47.1% of women in NSW feel very satisfied that they are part of their local community. This is similar to reports by men (45.2%) and shows that for many in NSW, social connectedness can be improved (2022).11
- Women in NSW tend to agree that they have social support in their lives (average agreement of 5.3 points on a scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). Men show a similar level of agreement (5.2) (2022).12
- 48.2% of women in NSW gather socially with friends or family at least once a week, compared to only 47.2% of men (2022).13
1 NSW Treasury Board Appointments, 2024.
2 NSW Premier’s Department, Workforce Profile Report, 2024.
3 ABS, Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, November 2024.
4 Relates to IT, engineering, agriculture and architecture. Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, VOCSTATS, 2024.
5 NSW Education Standards Authority, 2024.
6, 7, 8 HSC Completion Rates, NSW Education Standards Authority, 2024 (by request); Regional population by age and sex, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2024; Women NSW calculations.
9 National Centre for Vocational Education Research, VOCSTATS, 2024.
10 National Centre for Vocational Education Research, VOCSTATS, 2024.
11 HILDA Survey, 2022.
12 HILDA Survey, 2022.
13 HILDA Survey, 2022.
Data reference period relevant up to Dec ‘24.