In 1972, through the Arbitration Commission, Australia finally began to break down the barriers in equality, ruling that women performing the same work as men must receive the same pay.
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Although the idea has been enshrined in our legislation, it has taken many years to arduously break down institutional and cultural barriers that continue to keep female workers coming up short.
Before I go any further, I think it has to be said that it is not just in the workforce that equality is a problem, but also professional sport.
With the excitement of the Australian Open in the press, recently there have been interesting discussions about sexism on the court. And lets face it, imagine the absurdity of asking Roger Federer to "give us a twirl and tell us about your outfit".
With all comments aside you have to hand it to the Australian Open. They've done a fantastic job of ensuring that the women's game is on an equal footing to the men's.
In a lot of sports, there is a huge divide between the genders. Yet, if you are lucky enough to attend both a male and female game at the Australian Open, you will find them battling it out for equal prizemoney.
Many have argued that females shouldn’t be paid as much simply because they do not play matches as long as the men at the Grand Slam tournaments. A mentality that aligns with the comparison that if two people were to do a job and one works longer, if they are paid on an hourly basis, then shouldn’t the person working longer be paid more?
But I think if the women draw just as large crowds as their male counterparts, and offer equal amounts of enjoyment, they should be paid uniformly.
Yet if this is the logic, as detrimental to the feminist movement as it may seem, female athletes in sports such as rugby league, AFL and cricket, examples where the fan base and sponsorship in the female teams are significantly lower, than the male teams should be paid more.
I do hope this is not the case. That despite any social barrier, eventually we will see the divide close.