Our economic growth, competitive advantage, and future prosperity rests on our capacity to address workforce participation issues. Increasing the workforce participation of women is one of our nation’s biggest economic and social opportunities. Equally, ensuring we are maximising our talent and empowering women to advance in the workforce will be central to our nation’s success.

We have an extraordinary opportunity to make smart investments that remove structural barriers for women who wish to fully participate in the paid workforce thereby unlocking greater productivity in the Australian economy. Never has it been more important to ensure that every person in Australia who can work is working. Therefore, increasing women’s participation in the workforce is essential.

Building on current policies, we can increase the choices and opportunities available to women – making it easier for them to return to the workforce, secure new and better jobs, jobs with more hours and jobs that enable them to build on their careers and advance.

Huge productivity gains are to be made if we can get the structural and policy settings right to increase women’s participation, creating an economic uplift.

Increasing women’s participation will contribute to productivity and in turn spur greater economic growth and benefit the national economy by utilising the skills of this highly talented and well-educated cohort that make up more than 50 per cent of the population.

To achieve this ambition, we need to shift the dial.

Read our full report here.