Building on world’s best practice
Gender responsive budgeting enables governments to shape their policies and investments to improve gender equality.
That’s why in 2022, Victoria joined other leading international jurisdictions in using gender responsive budgeting.
Today, 61% of OECD countries – including 5 of the 7 largest economies in the world: Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom – practise gender responsive budgeting.
And we know: gender responsive budgeting delivers real results.
In France, gender responsive budgeting helped to monitor the participation of girls in STEM courses at school and women in sport competitions to inform ongoing policy development.
In Japan, it helped to raise awareness of the need to allocate funding to support women with the cost of pads and tampons to alleviate period poverty – something we’re already doing here in Victoria.
And in Victoria, we are continuing to use gender responsive budgeting to ensure fairer outcomes for Victorian women and girls.
Understanding gender responsive budgeting
Government spending on services and infrastructure doesn’t always benefit everyone equally.
When governments understand these differences, we can design and fund public services that work better – for all Victorians.
How it works
Gender responsive budgeting looks at decisions about spending to:
- Identify how investments in areas like health, education and social services affect different groups.
- Focus resources on the people who need them the most – those who experience existing inequalities.
- Ensure new projects and programs benefit the whole community.
This doesn’t mean we’re creating separate funding streams for women and men.
It means we’re making smarter – and fairer – decisions by understanding the different ways people use and benefit from government investment.
Gender responsive budgeting in action – Apprenticeships
Gender responsive budgeting seeks to understand the effects that policies, programs or services have on Victorians from all walks of life.
One of the ways we are doing this is by continuing to support Victoria’s apprentices and reform the apprenticeship system.
Women are less likely to undertake an apprenticeship than men, and where they do, they can face challenges with sexism and structural barriers like inequitable care responsibilities. This limits the opportunity for women to pursue a career in trades.
With that understanding, Apprenticeships Victoria is working with industry to break down barriers to women completing their apprenticeship. That includes continuing to support priority cohorts, including women, to address workplace harassment, mental health and wellbeing.
And we've seen some success – with increased participation of women in the apprenticeship system, including on our Big Build projects where female apprentice representation is almost double the state average.
Putting gender responsive budgeting into law
Our Government made history with the passage of the Gender Equality Act 2020. This was a landmark step in breaking down discrimination and gender barriers in the workplace.
And last year, Victoria embedded gender responsive budgeting into legislation by amending the Financial Management Act 1994.
Both pieces of legislation are Australian firsts.
This reform allows the Treasurer to request Gender Impact Assessments for any matter concerning the Financial Management Act 1994. This will help decision-makers understand the gendered impacts of policy proposals – putting gender equality at the centre of sound financial management.
We’re proud that we’ve published a Gender Equality Budget Statement every year since the 2017/18 Budget – and now every Budget in the future must include a statement about gender equality.
Victorian Government as a leader
The Victorian Government is leading by example in advancing gender equality.
Achievements since last year’s Budget
Since the last Budget, we have continued to advance gender equality and support better outcomes for women.
We have improved Victoria’s healthcare system to meet the needs of women and girls by:
- Continuing to establish 20 women’s health clinics across our state, with 5 clinics opened in 2024 and a further 5 clinics set to open in 2025. These clinics will deliver free, comprehensive care for women and girls.
- Delivered 6 further sexual and reproductive health hubs to improve women’s access to care, adding to the 14 hubs currently in operation across Victoria.
- Delivering an additional 10,800 laparoscopic surgeries to diagnose and treat conditions like endometriosis.
- Dispensing 25,000 free pads and tampons across nearly 70 public locations, making sure women and girls aren’t caught out and delivering cost of living relief.
And we’ve continued leading the nation in the prevention of violence against women and support for victim survivors of family violence, with:
- Rollout of our Women’s Safety Package to continue targeting the root causes of violence towards women.
- Making non-fatal strangulation a standalone criminal offence to better protect victims of family violence.
- Delivery of the new Safe Workplaces for Women Initiative in partnership with Victorian Trades Hall Council, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Working Women’s Centre of Victoria.
- Support for victim survivors of family violence to have secure and safe housing with homes provided as a part of the Big Housing Build.
Progress has also continued to be made in supporting women’s economic opportunities and security through:
- Releasing Making it equal, the Victorian Government’s strategy to encourage more girls and women to pursue a career in manufacturing. This work will continue to boost diversity and inclusion in one of Victoria’s most male-dominated sectors.
- Delivery of the Fair Jobs Code for the social and community services sector, which has a high number of women workers, to promote job security and fair labour standards.
And for the first time in Victoria’s history, more than half of new place names honour women. This brings us closer to our target of 70% of new commemorative place names honouring women, which is the target set out in Our equal state.
Our equal state
In August 2023, we released Our equal state – Victoria’s roadmap for action and investment in gender equality.
We know that gender inequality affects women at every age.
That’s why Our equal state takes a life-stage approach to gender equality by focusing on children and young people, adults and older adults.
This highlights the gendered gaps in opportunities and expected pathways between women, men and gender diverse people throughout their lives.
The strategy also recognises that not everyone experiences gender inequality in the same way. Gender inequality exists alongside other forms of discrimination and disadvantage. These include racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia and classism.
This roadmap outlines a bold plan of 110 actions in 5 focus areas that the Government will use to continue improving gender equality in Victoria.
Responding to the Inquiry into Economic Equity for Victorian Women
The Inquiry into Economic Equity for Victorian Women, established in 2021, sought to find solutions for persistent problems of economic inequity, such as unequal pay and workplace barriers to women’s success.
The Inquiry found systemic undervaluation of women’s contributions in the home, workplace and community.
It called for action to break down those barriers – and through Our equal state, we’ve been working to deliver lasting change to improve women’s economic security and participation across every part of Victorian life.
Embedding gender equality in policy
We know that thinking about gender impact early in policy design creates better gender outcomes.
This means doing everything we can to break down the structural barriers that hold girls and women back.
But we need to consider gender equality at every stage of the policy process.
That’s why this Budget invests $5.4 million to improve how we measure the impact of our policies and programs. By understanding what works and when, we can create better outcomes for all Victorians.
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